Essays Scientific Political And Speculative Vol I

ESS AT S

SCIENTIFIC, POLITICAL,
AND SPECULATIVE

BY

HERBERT SPENCER

LIBRARY EDITION

CONTAINING SEVEN ESSAYS NOT BEFORE REPUBLISHED
AND VARIOUS OTHER ADDITIONS

VOL. I

NEW YORK

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
1892

Authorized Edition.

PREFACE.

Excepting those which have appeared as articles in periodi-
cals during the last eight years, the essays here gathered
together were originally re-published in separate volumes
at long intervals. The first volume appeared in December
1857; the second in November 1868; and the third in
February 1874. By the time the original editions of the
first two had been sold, American reprints, differently
entitled and having the essays differently arranged, had
been produced ; and, for economy’s sake, I have since con-
tented myself with importing successive supplies printed
from the American stereotype plates. Of the third
volume, however, supplies have, as they were required,
been printed over here, from plates partly American and
partly English. The completion of this final edition of
course puts an end to this make-shift arrangement.

The essays above referred to as having been written
since 1882, are now incorporated with those previously
re-published. There are seven of them ; namely — “Morals
and Moral Sentiments,” “ The Factors of Organic Evolu-
tion,” “ Professor Green’s Explanations,” “ The Ethics of
Kant,” “Absolute Political Ethics,” “From Freedom to
Bondage,” and “ The Americans.” As well as these large
additions there are small additions, in the shape of post-

IT

PREFACE.

scripts to various essays— one to “ Tlie Constitution of
the Sun,” one to “The Philosophy of Style,” one to
“Railway Morals,” one to “Prison Ethics,” and one to
« The Origin and Function of Music which last is about
equal in length to the original essay. Changes have been
made in many of the essays: in some cases by omitting
passages and in other cases by including new ones.
Especially the essay on “ The Nebular Hypothesis” may
be named as one which, though unchanged in essentials,
has been much altered by additions and subtractions, and
by bringing its statements up to date ; so that it has been
in large measure re-cast. Beyond these respects in which
this final edition differs from preceding editions, it differs
in having undergone a verification of its references and
quotations, as well as a second verbal revision.

Naturally the fusion of three separate series of essays
into one series, has made needful a general re-arrangement.
Whether to follow the order of time or the order of
subjects was a question which presented itself ; and, as
neither alternative promised satisfactory results, I eventually
decided to compromise — to follow partly the one order and
partly the other. The first volume is made up of essays in
which the idea of evolution, general or special, is dominant.
In the second volume essays dealing with philosophical
questions, with abstract and concrete science, and with
{esthetics, are brought together ; but though all of them are
tacitly evolutionary, their evolutionism is an incidental rather
than a necessary trait. The ethical, political, and social
essays composing the third volume, though mostly written
from the evolution point of view, have for their more
immediate purposes the enunciation of doctrines which are
directly practical in their bearings. Meanwhile, within
each volume the essays are arranged in order of time : not

PEEFAOB,

V

indeed strictly, but so far as consists with tlie requirements
of sub-classing.

Beyond tbe essays included in these three volumes, there
remain several which I have not thought it well to include
— in some cases because of their personal character, in other
cases because of their relative unimportance, and in yet
other cases because they would scarcely be understood in the
absence of the arguments to which they are replies. But
for the convenience of any who may wish to find them, I
append their titles and places of publication. These are as
follows Retrogressive Religion,” in The Nineteenth
Century for July 1884; “ Last Words about Agnosticism
and the Religion of Humanity,” in The Nineteenth Century
for November 1884; a note to Prof. Cairns’ Critique on the
Study of Sociology, in The Fortnightly Review, for February
1875; (< A Short Rejoinder” [to Mr. J. F. McLennan],

; Fortnightly Review , Jane 1877 ; t( Prof. Goldwin Smith as a
Critic,” Contemporary Revieiv, March 1882; “ A Rejoinder
to M. de Laveleye,” Contemporary Review „ April 1885.

Londoist, December, 1890.

CONTENTS OF VOL I.

PAGE

THE DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESIS 1

PROGRESS : ITS LAW AND CAUSE 8

TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSIOLOGY 63

THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS 108

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY 192

BAIN ON THE EMOTIONS AND THE WILL 211

THE SOCIAL ORGANISM 265

THE ORIGIN OP ANIMAL WORSHIP ... 308

MORALS AND MORAL SENTIMENTS 331

THE COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY OP MAN 851

MR. MARTINEAU ON EVOLUTION 371

THE FACTORS OP ORGANIC EVOLUTION 389

( For Index , see Volume IIJ.)

THE DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESIS.

[' Originally published in The Leader, for March 20, 1852. Brief
though it is, I place this essay before the rest, partly because with
the exception of a similarly -brief essay on 11 Use and Beauty ”,
it came first in order of time , but chiefly because it came first in
order of thought , and struck the keynote of all that was to follow f\

In a debate upon the development hypothesis, lately-
narrated to me by a friend, one of the disputants was
described as arguing that as, in all our experience, we
know no such phenomenon as transmutation of species, it
is unphilosopkical to assume that transmutation of species
ever takes place. Had I been present I think that, passing
over his assertion, which is open to criticism, I should
have replied that, as in all our experience we have never
known a species created, it was, by his own showing,
unphilosophical to assume that any species ever had
been created.

Those who cavalierly reject the Theory of Evolution as
not being adequately supported by facts, seem to forget that
their own theory is supported by no facts at all. Like the
majority of men who are born to a given belief, they demand
the most rigorous pr oof o f an y adverse belief, but assume
that their own needs none. Here we find, scattered over
the globe, vegetable and animal organisms numbering, of
the one kind (according to Humboldt), some 320,000 species,
and of the other, some 2 , 000,000 species (see Carpenter) ;
and if to these we add the numbers of animal and vegetable

2

THE DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESIS.

species which have become extinct, we may safely estimate
the number of species that have existed, and are existing 1 ,
on the Earth, at not less than ten millions. Well, which
is the most rational theory about these ten millions of
species ? Is it most likely that there have been ten millions
of special creations ? or is it most likely that, by continual
modifications due to change of circumstances, ton millions
of varieties have been produced, as varieties are being
produced still ?

Doubtless many will reply that they can more easily con-
ceive ten millions of special creations to have taken place,
than they can conceive that ten millions of varieties have
arisen by successive modifications. All such, however, will
find, on inquiry, that they are under an illusion. This is
one of the many cases in which men do not really believe,
but rather believe they believe. It is not that they can truly
conceive ten millions of special creations to have taken
place, but that they think they can do so. Careful intro-
spection will show them that they have never yet realized
to themselves the creation of even one species. If they
have formed a definite conception of the process, let them
tell us how a new species is constructed, and how it makes
its appearance. Is it thrown down from the clouds? or
must we hold to the notion that it struggles up out of the
ground ? Do its limbs and viscera rush together from all
the points of the compass? or must we receive the old
Hebrew idea, that G-od takes clay and moulds a now
creature? If they say that a new creature is produced in
none of these inodes, which are too absurd to be believed,
then they are required to describe the mode in which a new
creature may be produced — a mode which does not seem
absurd ; and such a mode they will find that they neither
have conceived nor can conceive.

Should the believers in special creations consider it unfair
thus to call upon them to describe how special creations
take place, I reply that this is far less than they demand

THE DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESIS. 3

from tlie supporters of the Development Hypothesis.
They are merely ashed to point out a conceivable mode.
On the other hand, they ask., not simply for a conceivable
mode,, hut for the actual mode. They do not say — Show
ns how this may take place ; but they say — Show us how
this does take place. So far from its being unreasonable
to put the above question, it would be reasonable to ask
not only for a possible mode of special creation, but for an
ascertained mode ; seeing that this is no greater a demand
than they make upon their opponents.

And here we may perceive how much more defensible
the new doctrine is than the old one. Even could the sup-
porters of the Development Hypothesis merely show that
the origination of species by the process of modification is
conceivable, they would be in a better position than, their
opponents. But they can do much more than this. They
can show that the process of modification has effected, and
is effecting, decided changes in all organisms subject to
modifying influences. Though, from the impossibility of
getting at a sufficiency of facts, they are unable to trace the
many phases through which any existing species has passed
in arriving at its present form, or to identify the influences
which caused the successive modifications; yet, they can
show that any existing species— animal or vegetable — when
placed un der conditions different from its previous ones,
immediately begins to undergo certain changes fitting it for
the new conditions. They can show that in successive
generations these changes continue ; until, ultimately, the
new conditions become the natural ones. They can show
that in cultivated plants, in domesticated animals, and in
the several races of men, such alterations have taken place.
They can show that the degrees of difference so produced
are often, as in dogs, greater than those on which distinctions
of species are in other cases founded. They can show that
it is a matter of dispute whether some of these modified forms
are varieties or separate species. They can show, too, that

4 THE DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESIS.

the changes daily taking place in ourselves — tlie -facility
that attends long practice, .and the loss of aptitude that
begins when practice ceases— the strengthening of passions
habitually gratified, and the weakening of those habitually
curbed— the development of every faculty, bodily, moral,
or intellectual, according to the use made of it— are all
explicable on this same principle. And thus they can show
that throughout all organic nature there is at work a,
modifying influence of the kind they assign as the cause of
these specific differences : an influence which, though slow
in its action, does, in time, if the circumstances demand it,
produce marked changes— an influence which, to all appear-
ance, would produce in the millions of years, and under
the great varieties of condition which geological records
imply, any amount of change.

Which, then, is the most rational hypothesis ? — that of
special creations which has neither a fact to support it nor
is even definitely conceivable; or that of modification,
which is not only definitely conceivable, but is countenanced
by the habitudes of every existing organism ?

That by any series of changes a protozoon should ever
become a mammal, seems to those who are not familiar
with zoology, and who have not seen how clear becomes the
relationship between the simplest and the most complex
forms when intermediate forms are examined, a very gro-
tesque notion. Habitually looking at things rather in their
statical aspect than in their dynamical aspect, they never
realize the fact that, by small increments of modification,
any amo unt of modification may in time be generated.
That surprise which they feel on finding one whom they
last saw as a hoy, grown into a man, becomes incredulity
when the degree of change is greater. Nevertheless,
abundant instances are at hand of the mode in which wo
may pass to the most diverse forms by insensible gradations.
Arguing the matter some time since with a learned pro-
fessor, I illustrated my position thus : — You admit that

THE DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESIS. 5

there is no apparent relationship between a circle and an
hyperbola. The one is a finite curve ; the other is an infinite
one. All parts of the one are alike ; of the other no parts
are alike [save parts on its opposite sides] . The one incloses
a space j the other will not inclose a space though produced
for ever. Yet opposite as are these curves in all their
properties, they may be connected together by a series of
intermediate curves, no one of which differs from the
adjacent ones in any appreciable degree. Thus, if a cone_
be cut by a plane at right angles to its axis we get a circle.
If, instead of being perfectly at right angles, the plane
subtends with the axis an angle of 89° 59', we have an
ellipse which no human eye, even when aided by an accurate
pair of compasses, can distinguish from a circle. Decreas-
ing the angle minute by minute/ the ellipse becomes first
perceptibly eccentric, then manifestly so, and by and by
acquires so immensely elongated a form, as to bear no
recognizable resemblance to a circle. By continuing this
process, the ellipse passes insensibly into a parabola; and,
ultimately, by still further diminishing the angle, into an
hyperbola, blow here we have four different species of
curve — circle, ellipse, parabola, and hyperbola — each having
its peculiar properties and its separate equation, and the
first and last of which are quite opposite in nature, connected
together as members of one series, all producible by a single
process of insensible modification.

But the blindness of those who think it absurd to suppose
that complex organic forms may have arisen by successive
modifications out of simple ones, becomes astonishing when
we remember that complex organic forms are daily being
thus produced. A tree differs from a seed immeasurably
in every respect — in bulk, in structure, in colour, in form,
in chemical composition : differs so greatly that no visible
resemblance of any kind can be pointed out between them.
Yet is the one changed in the course of a few years into
tho other : changed so gradually, that at no moment can

6

THE DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESIS.

it be said— Now the seed ceases to be., and the tree exists.
What can be more widely contrasted than a newly-born
child and the small, semi-transparent spherule constituting
the human ovum ? The infant is so complex in structure
that a cyclopaedia is needed to describe its constituent
parts. The germinal vesicle is so simple that it may be
defined in a line, Nevertheless a few months suffice to
develop the one out of the other ; and that, too, by a
series of modifications so small, that were the embryo
examined at successive minutes, even a microscope would
with difficulty disclose any sensible changes. That the
uneducated and the ill-educated should think the hypothesis
that all races of beings, man inclusive, may in process of
time have been evolved from the simplest monad, a ludicrous
one, is not to be wondered at. But for the physiologist,
who knows that every individual being is so evolved — who
knows, further, that in their earliest condition the germs
of all plants and animals whatever are so similar, “ that
there is no appreciable distinction amongst them, which
would enable it to be determined whether a particular
molecule is the germ of a Conferva or of an Oak, of a
Zoophyte or of a Man ; 33 * — for him to make a difficulty of
the matter is inexcusable. Surely if a singl e cell may,
when subjected to certain influences, become a man in the
space of twenty years; there is nothi ng absurd in the
hypothesis that under certain other influences, a cell may,
in the course of millions of years, give origin to the
human race.

We have, indeed, in the part taken by many scientific
men in this controversy of “Law versus Miracle,” a good
illustration of the tenacious vitality of superstitions. Ask
one of our leading geologists or physiologists whether he
believes in the Mosaic account of the creation, and he will
take the question as next to an insult. Either he rejects the
narrative entirely, or understands it in some vqguie non- -
* Carpenter, Principles of Comparative Physiology, p. 474

THE DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESIS.

7

natural sense. Yet one part of it lie unconsciously adopts ;
and that, too, literally. For whence lias lie got tins notion
of “special creations / 5 which lie thinks so* reasonable, and
fights for so vigorously ? Evidently he can trace it hack
to no other source than this myth which he repudiates.
He has not a single fact in nature to cite in proof of it ;
nor is he prepared with any chain of reasoning by which it
may be established. Catechize him, and he will be forced
to confess that the notion was put into his mind in child-
hood as part of a story which he now thinks absurd. And
why, after rejecting all the rest of the story, he should
strenuously defend this last remnant of it, as though he
had received it on valid authority, he would be puzzled
to say.

PROGRESS: ITS LAW AND CAUSE.

[Eirst published in The Westminster Review for April, 185?.
Though the ideas and illustrations contained in this essay were
eventually incorporated in First Principles, yet I think it well
here to reproduce it as exhibiting the form under which the General
Doctrine of Evolution made its first appearance.']

The current conception of progress is sliifting and
indefinite. Sometimes it comprehends little more than
simple growth — as of a nation in the number of its members
and the extent of territorj r over which it spreads. Sometimes
it has reference to quantity of material products — as when
the advance of agriculture and manufactures is the topic.
Sometimes the superior quality of these products is con-
templated] and sometimes the new or improved appliances
by which they are produced. When, again, we speak of
moral or intellectual progress, we refer to states of the
individual or people exhibiting it; while, when the progress
of Science, or Art, is commented upon, we have in view
certain abstract results of human thought and action. Not
only, however, is the current conception of progress more
or less vague, but it is in great measure erroneous. It
takes in not so much the reality of progress as its accom-
paniments — not so much the substance as the shadow.
That progress in intelligence seen during the growth of
the child into the man, or the savage into the philosopher,
is commonly regarded as consisting in the greater number

PROGRESS : ITS LAW AND CAUSE. 9

of facts known and laws understood ; whereas the actual
progress consists in those internal modifications of which
this larger know! d gt i the exj ession. Social progress
is supposed to consist in the making of a greater quantity
and variety of the articles required for satisfying men's
wants ; in the increasing security of person and property ;
in widening freedom of action; whereas, rightly understood,
social pro ress co in those chan of stru. tureinthe
social oigauism which have entailed these consequences.
The current conception is a teleological one. The pheno-
mena are contemplated solely as hearing on human
happiness. Only those changes are held to constitute
progress which directly or indirectly tend to heighten
human happiness j and they are thought to constitute
progress simply because they tend to heighten human
happiness. But rightly to understand progress, we must
learn the nature of these changes, considered apart from
our interests. Ceasing, for example, to regard the suc-
cessive geological modifications that have taken place in
the Earth, as modifications that have gradually fitted it for
the habitation of Man, and as therefore constituting geo-
logical progress, we must ascertain the character common
to these modifications — the law to which they all conform.
And similarly in every other case. Leaving out of sight
concomitants and beneficial consequences, let us ask what
progress is in itself.

In respect to that progress which individual organisms
display in the course of their evolution, this question has
been answered by the Germans. The investigations of
Wolff, Goethe, and von Baer, have established the truth
that the series of chang es gon e through during the develop-
ment of a seed into a tree, or an ovum into an animal,
constitute an advance from homogeneity of structure to
heterogeneity of structure. In its primary stage, .every
germ consists of a substance that is uniform throughout,
both in texture and chemical composition. The first str-

10

PEOGEESS : ITS LAW AND CAUSE.

is tie appearance of a difference between two parts of this

ibstanc o e In j me on is called in 1 gici

, a ?, a differ tint ion. Each of these differentiated
divisions presently begins itself to exhibit some contrast
of parts: and by and by these secondary differentiations
become as definite as the original one. This process is
continuously repeated — is simultaneously going on in all
parts of the growing embryo ; and by endless such differen-
tiations there is finally produced that complex combination
of tissues and organs . constituting the adult animal or
plant. This is the history of all organisms whatever. It
is settled beyond dispute that organic progress consists in
a change from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous.

Now, we propose in the first place to show, that this law
of organic progress is the law of all progress. Whether it
he in the development of the Earth, in the development of
Life upon its surface, in the development of Society, of
Government, of Manufactures, of Commerce, of Language,
Literature, Science, Art, this same evolution of the simple
into the complex, through successive differentiations, holds
throughout. Prom the earliest traceable cosmical changes
down to the latest results of civilization, we shall find that
the transformation of the homogeneous into the hetero-
geneous, is that in which progress essentially consists.

With the view of showing that if the Nebular Hypothesis
be true, the genesis of the solar system supplies one illus-
tration of this law, let us assume that the matter of which
the sun and planets consist was once in a diffused form ;
and that from the gravitation of its atoms there resulted a
gradual concentration. By the hypothesis, the solar system
in its nascent state existed as an indefinitely extended
and nearly homogeneous medium — a medium almost homo-
geneous in density, in temperature, and in other physical
attributes. The first change in the direction of increased
aggregation, brought a contrast in density and a contrast
in temperature, between the interior and the exterior

11

FEOGEESS : ITS LAW AND CAUSE.

of this mass. Simultaneously the drawing in of outer
parts caused motions ending in rotation round a centre
with, various angular velocities. These differentiations
increased in number and degree until there was evolved
the organized group of sun, planets, and satellites, which
wo now know — a group which presents numerous contrasts
of structure and action among its members. There are
the immense contrasts between the sun and the planets, in
bulk and in weight; as well as the subordinate contrasts
between one planet and another, and between the planets
and their satellites. There is the similarly-marked contrast
between the sun as almost stationary (relatively to the
other members of the Solar System), and the planets as
moving round him with great velocity : while there are the
secondary contrasts between the velocities and periods of
the several planets, and between their simple revolutions
and the double ones of their satellites, which have to move
round their primaries while moving round the sun. There
is the yet further strong contrast between the sun and
the planets in respect of temperature ; and there is good
reason to suppose that the planets and satellites differ from
each other in their proper heats, as well as in the amounts
of heat they receive from the sun. When we bear in mind
that, in addition to these various contrasts, the planets and
satellites also differ in respect to their distances from each
other and their primary ; in respect to the inclinations of
their orbits, the inclinations of their axes, their times of
rotation on their axes, their specific gravities, and their
physical constitutions ; we see what a high degree of
heterogeneity the solar system exhibits, when compared
with the almost complete homogeneity of the nebulous
mass out of which it is supposed to have originated.

Passing from this hypothetical illustration, which must be
taken for what it is worth, without prejudice to the general
argument, let us descend to a more certain order of
evidence. It is now generally agreed among geologists

12 PROGRESS : ITS LAW AND CAUSE.

and physicists that the Earth, was at one time a mass
of molten matter. If so, it was at that time relatively
homogeneous in consistence, and, in virtue of the circu-
lation which takes place in heated fluids, must have been
comparatively homogeneous in temperature ; and it must
have been surrounded by an atmosphere consisting’'
partly of the elements of air and water, and partly of
those various other elements which are among the more
ready to assume gaseous forms at high temperatures. That
slow cooling by radiation which is still going on at an
inappreciable rate, and which, though originally far more
rapid than now, necessarily required an immense time to
produce any decided change, must ultimately have resulted
in the solidification of the portion most able to part with its
heat — namely, the surface. In the thin crust thus formed
we have the first marked differentiation. A still further
cooling, a consequent thickening of this crust, and an
accompanying deposition of all solidifiable elements con-
tained in the atmosphere, must finally have been followed
by the condensation of the water previously existing as
vapour. A second marked differentiation must thus have
arisen; and as the condensation must have taken place on
the coolest parts of the surface— namely, about the poles —
there must thus have resulted the first geographical
distinction of parts. To these illustrations of growing-
heterogeneity, which, though deduced from known physical
laws, may be regarded as more or less hypothetical,
G eology adds an extensive series that have been inductively
established. Investigations show that the Earth has been
continually becoming more heterogeneous in virtue of the '
multiplication of sedimentary strata which form its crust;
also, that it has been becoming more heterogeneous in
respect of the composition of these strata, the later of
which, being made from the detritus of the earlier, are
many of them rendered highly complex by the mixture of
materials they contain ; and further, that this heterogeneity

PROGRESS : ITS MW AND CAUSE. X o

lias been vastly increased by the actions of the Earth’s still
molten nucleus upon its envelope, whence have resulted not
only many kinds of igneous rocks, but the tilting up of
sedimentary strata at all angles, the formation of faults and
metallic veins, the production of endless dislocations and
irregularities. Yet again, geologists teach us that the
Earth’s surface has been growing more varied in elevation
-—that the most ancient mountain systems are the smallest,
and the Andes and Himalayas the most modern; while in
all probability there have been corresponding changes in
the bed of the ocean. As a consequence of these ceaseless
differentiations, we now find that no considerable portion
of the Earth’s exposed surface is like any other portion,
either in contour, in geologic structure, or in chemical
composition; and that in most parts it changes from mile
to mile in all these characters. Moreover, there has been
simultaneously going on a differentiation of climates. As
fast as the Earth cooled and its crust solidified, there arose
appreciable differences in temperature between those parts
of its surface more exposed to the sun and those less
exposed. As the cooling progressed, these differences
became more pronounced ; until there finally resulted those
marked contrasts between regions of perpetual, ice and
snow, regions where winter and summer alternately reign
for periods varying according to the latitude, and regions
where summer follows summer with scarcely an appreciable
variation. At the same time the many and varied
elevations and subsidences of portions of the Earth’s crust,
bringing about the present irregular distribution of land
and sea, have entailed modifications of climate beyond those
dependent on latitude; while a yet farther series of such
modifications have been produced by increasing differences
of elevation in the land, which have in sundry places
brought arctic, temperate, and tropical climates to within
a few miles of one another. And the general outcome of
these changes is, that not only has every extensive region

14

PROGRESS: ITS LAW AND CAUSE.

its own meteorologic conditions, but tliat every locality M
each region differs more or less from others in those
conditions ; as in its structure; its contour, its soil. Thus,
between our existing Earth, the phenomena of whose crust
neither geographers, geologists, mineralogists, nor meteoro-
logists have yet enumerated, and the molten globe out
of which it was evolved, the contrast in heterogeneity
is extreme.

When from the Earth itself we turn to the plants and
animals which have lived, or still live, upon its surface,
we find ourselves in some difficulty from lack of facts.
That every existing organism has been developed out of the
simple into the complex, Is indeed the ids t established truth
of all ,- and that every organism which existed in past times
was similarly developed, is an inference no physiologist
will hesitate to draw. But when we pass from individual
forms of life to Life in general, and inquire whether the
same law is seen in the ensemble of its manifestations,—
whether modern plants and animals are of more hetero-
geneous structure than ancient ones, and whether the
Earth’s present Flora and Fauna are more heterogeneous
than the Flora and Fauna of the past, — we find the
evidence so fragmentary, that every conclusion is open to
dispute. Three-fifths of the Earth’s surface being covered
by water; a great part of the exposed land being inacces-
sible to, or untravelled by, the geologist ; the greater part
of the remainder having been scarcely more than glanced
at; and even the most familiar portions, as England, having
been so imperfectly explored that a new series of strata
has been added within these four years, — it is impossible
for us to say with certainty what creatures have, and what
have not, existed, at any particular period. Considering the
perishable nature of many of the lower organic forms,
the metamorphosis of numerous sedimentary strata, and
the great gaps occurring among the rest, we shall see
further reason for distrusting our deductions. On the

one hand, tlie repeated discovery of vertebrate remains
in strata previously supposed to contain none, — of reptiles
where only fish were thought to exist, — of mammals where
it was believed there were no creatures higher than reptiles,
—renders it daily more manifest how small is the value of
negative evidence. On the other hand, the worthlessness
of the assumption that we have discovered the earliest, or
anything like the earliest, organic remains, is becoming
equally clear. That the oldest known sedimentary rocks
have been greatly changed by igneous action, and that
still older ones have been totally transformed by it, is
becoming undeniable. And the fact that sedimentary
strata earlier than any we know, have been melted up, being
admitted, it must also be admitted that we cannot say how
far back in time this destruction of sedimentary strata has
been going on. Thus the title Palceozoic, as applied to
the earliest known fossilif erous strata, involves a petitio
principii ; and, for aught we know to the contrary, only
the last few chapters of the Earth’s biological history may
have come down to us. On neither side, therefore, is the
evidence conclusive. Nevertheless we cannot but think
that, scanty as they are, the facts, taken altogether, tend to
show both that the more heterogeneous organisms have
been evolved in the later geologic periods, end that Life in
general has been more heterogeneously manifested as time
has advanced. Let us cite, in illustration, the one case of
the Vertebrata. The earliest known vertebrate remains are
those of Fishes ; and Fishes are the most homogeneous of
the vertebrata. Later and more heterogeneous are Rep-
tiles. Later still, and more heterogeneous still, are Birds
and Mammals. If it be said that the Palaeozoic deposits,
not being estuary deposits, are not likely to contain the
remains of terrestrial vertebrata, which may nevertheless
have existed at that era, wo reply that we are merely
pointing to the leading facts, such as they are . But to
avoid any such criticism, let us take the mammalian sub-

16 PROGRESS *. ITS LAW AND CAUSE.

division only. The earliest known remains of mammals
are those of small marsupials, which are the lowest of the
mammalian type; while, conversely, the highest of the
mammalian type — Man — is the most recent. The evidence
that the vertebrate fauna, as a whole, has become more
heterogeneous, is considerably stronger. To the argument
that the vertebrate fauna of the Palaeozoic period, consisting,
so far as wc know, entirely of Fishes, was less hetero-
geneous than the modern vertebrate fauna, which includes
Beptiles, Birds, and Mammals, of multitudinous genera, it
may he replied, as before, that estuary deposits of the
Palaeozoic period, could we find them, might contain other
orders of vertebrata. But no such reply can be made to
the argument that whereas the marine vertebrata of the
Palaeozoic period consisted entirely of cartilaginous fishes,
the marine vertebrata of later periods include numerous
genera of osseous fishes ; and that, therefore, the later
marine vertebrate faunas are more heterogeneous than the
oldest known one. Nor, again, can any such reply be
made to the fact that there are far more numerous orders
and genera of mammalian remains in the tertiary forma-
tions than in the secondary formations. Did we wish
merely to make out the best case, we might dwell upon the
opinion of Dr. Carpenter, who says that “ the general facts
of Palaeontology appear to sanction the belief, that the same
plan may he traced out in what may be called the general
life of the globe, as in the individual life of every one of
the forms of organized being which now people it.” Or
we might quote, as decisive, the judgment of Professor
Owen, who holds that the earlier examples of each group
of creatures severally departed less widely from archetypal
generality than the later . examples — were severally less
unlike the fundamental form common to the group as a
whole ; and thus constituted a less heterogeneous group
of creatures. Butin deference to an authority for whom
we have the highest respect, who considers that the

PROGRESS : ITS RAW AND CAUSE. 17

evidence at present obtained does not justify a verdict
either wav, we are content to leave the question open.*
Whether an advance from the homogeneous to the
heterogeneous is or is not displayed in the biological
history of the globe., it is clearly enough displayed in the
progress of the latest and most heterogeneous creature —
Man. It is true alike that, during the period in which the
Barth has been peopled, the human organism has grown
more heterogeneous among the civilized divisions of
the species ; and that the species, as a whole, has been
growing more heterogeneous in virtue of the multiplication
of races and the differentiation of these races from each
other. In proof of the first of these positions, we may cite
the fact that, in the relative development of the limbs, the
civilized man departs more widely from the general type
of the placental mammalia than do the lower human races.
While often possessing well-developed body and arms, the
Australian has very small legs : thus reminding us of the
chimpanzee and the gorilla, which present no great con-
trasts in size between the hind and fore limbs. But in the
European, the greater length and massiveness of the legs
have become marked — the fore and hind limbs are more
heterogeneous. Again, the greater ratio which the cranial
bones bear to the facial bones illustrates the same truth.
Among the vertebrata in general, progress is marked by
an increasing heterogeneity in the vertebral column, and
more especially in the segments constituting the skull : the
higher forms being distinguished by the relatively larger
size of the bones which cover the brain, and the relatively

* Since this was written (in 1S57) the advance of paleontological dis-
covery, especially in America, has shown conclusively, in respect of certain
groups of vertebrates, that higher types have arisen by modifications of
lower ; so that, in common with others, Prof. Huxley, to whom the above
allusion is made, now admits, or rather asserts, biological progression, and,
by implication, that there have arisen more heterogeneous organic forms and
a more heterogeneous assemblage of organic forms.

18

PROGRESS : ITS LAW AND CAUSE.

smaller size of those which, form the jaws, &e. Now this
characteristic, which is stronger in Man than in any other
creature, is stronger in the European than in the savage.
Moreover, judging from the greater extent and variety of
faculty he exhibits, we may infer that the civilized man
has also a more complex or heterogeneous nervous system
than the uncivilized man : and, indeed, the fact is in part
visible in the increased ratio which his cerebrum bears to
the subjacent ganglia, as well as in the wider departure
from symmetry in its convolutions. If further elucidation
he needed, we may find it in every nursery. The infant
European has sundry marked points of resemblance to the
lower human races ; as in the flatness of the aim of the
nose, the depression . of its bridge, the divergence and
forward opening of the nostrils, the form of the lips, the
absence of a frontal sinus, the width between the eyes, the
smallness of the legs. Now, as the developmental process
by which these traits are turned into those of the adult
European, is a continuation of that change from the homo-
geneous to the heterogeneous displayed during the previous
evolution of the embryo, which every anatomist will admit;
it follows that the parallel developmental process by which
the like traits of the barbarous races have been turned
into those of the civilized races, has also been a continua-
tion of the change from the homogeneous to the hetero-
geneous. The truth of the second position— that Mankind,
as a whole, have become more heterogeneous— is so obvious
as scarcely to need illustration. Every work on Ethnology,
by its divisions and subdivisions of races, bears testimony
to it. Even were we to admit the hypothesis that Man-
kind originated from several separate stocks, it would still
remain true, that as, from each of these stocks, there
have sprung many now widely-different tribes, which are
proved by philological evidence to have had a common
origin, the race as a whole is far less homogeneous than it
once was. Add to which, that we have, in the Anglo-

19

PROGRESS : ITS LAW AND CAUSE.

Americans, an example of a new variety arising within
these few generations ; and that, if we may trust to the
descriptions of observers, we are likely soon to have
another such example in Australia.

On passing from Humanity under its individual form, to
Humanity as socially embodied, we find the general law
still more variously exemplified. The change from the
homogeneous to the heterogeneous is displayed in the
progress of civilization as a whole, as well as in the
progress of every nation ; and is still going on with
increasing rapidity. As we see in existing barbarous
tribes, society in its first and lowest form is a homogeneous
aggregation of individuals having like powers and like
functions : the only marked difference of function being
that which accompanies difference of sex. Every man
is warrior, hunter, fisherman, tool-maker, builder ; every
woman performs the same drudgeries. Very early,
however, in the course of social evolution, there arises
an incipient differentiation between the governing and the
governed. Some kind of chieftainship seems coeval with
the first advance from the state of separate wandering
families to that of a nomadic tribe. The authority of
the strongest or the most cunning makes itself felt among
a body of savages as in a herd of animals, or a posse of
schoolboys. At first, however, it is indefinite, uncertain ;
is shared by others of scarcely inferior power ; and is
unaccompanied by any difference in occupation or style of
living : the first ruler kills his own game, makes his own
weapons, builds his own hut, and, economically considered,
does not differ from others of his tribe. Gradually, as the
tribe progresses, the contrast between the governing and
the governed grows more decided. Supreme power
becomes hereditary in one family; the head of that family,
ceasing to provide for his own wants, is served by others ;
and he begins to assume the sole office of ruling*. At the
same time there has been arising a co-ordinate species of

20 progress: its law and cause.

government — that of Religion. As all ancient records and
traditions prove, the earliest rulers are regarded as divine
personages. The: maxims and commands they uttered
during their lives are held sacred after their deaths, and
are enforced By their divinely-descended successors ; who
in their turns are promoted to the pantheon of the race,
here to be worshipped and propitiated along with their
predecessors : the most ancient of whom is the supreme
god, and the rest subordinate gods, For a long time
these connate forms of government — civil and religious—
remain closely associated. For many generations the king
continues to be the chief priest, and the priesthood to be
members of the royal race. For many ages religious law
continues to include more or less of civil regulation, and
civil law to possess more or less of religious sanction ; and
even among the most advanced nations these two controlling
agencies are by no means completely separated from each
other. Having a common root with these, and gradually
diverging from them, we find yet another controlling
agency — that of Ceremonial usages. All titles of Honour
are originally the names of the god-king; afterwards of
the god and the king; still later of persons of high rank;
and finally come, some of them, to be used between man
and man. All forms of complimentary address were at
first the expressions of submission from prisoners to their
conqueror, or from subjects to their ruler, either human or
divine — expressions which were afterwards used to propitiate
subordinate authorities, and slowly descended into ordinary
intercourse. All modes of salutation were once obeisances
made before the monarch and used in worship of him after
his death. Presently others of the god-descended race
were similarly saluted ; and by degrees some of the
salutations have become the due of all.* Thus, no sooner
does the originally-homogeneous social mass differentiate

* Tor detailed proof of these assertions see essay on “Manners and Fashion.,”

PROGRESS : ITS LAW AND CAUSE. 21

into the governed and. the governing parts, than this last
exhibits an incipient differentiation into religious and
secular — Church and State ; while at the same time there
begins to be differentiated from both, that less definite
species of government which rules our daily intercourse —
a species of government which, as we may see in heralds’
colleges, in books of the peerage, in masters of ceremonies,
is not without a certain embodiment of its own. Each of
these is itself subject to successive differentiations. In the
course of ages, there arises, as among ourselves, a highly
complex political organization of monarch, ministers, lords
and commons, with their subordinate administrative depart-
ments, courts of justice, revenue offices, &c., supplemented
in the provinces by municipal governments, county govern-
ments, parish or union governments — all of them more or
less elaborated. By its side there grows up a highly
complex religious organization, with its vai'ious grades of
officials, from archbishops down to sextons, its colleges,
convocations, ecclesiastical courts, &c. ; to all which must
be added the ever-multiplying independent sects, each with
its general and local authorities. And at the same time
there is developed a highly complex aggregation of customs,
manners, and temporary fashions, enforced by society at
large, and serving to control those minor transactions
.between man and man which are not regulated by civil
and religious law. Moreover, it is to be observed that this
increasing heterogeenity in the governmental appliances of
each nation, has been accompanied by an increasing’
heterogeneity in the assemblage of governmental appliances
of different nations : all nations being more or less unlike
in their political systems and legislation, in their creeds and
religious institutions, in their customs and ceremonial usages.

Simultaneously there has been going on a second
differentiation of a more familiar kind; that, namely, by
which the mass of the community has been segregated
into distinct classes and orders of workers. While the

22

PROGRESS : ITS LAW AND CAUSE.

governing 1 part lias -undergone the complex development
above detailed, the governed part has undergone an
equally complex development, which has resulted in that
minute division of labour characterizing advanced nations.
It is needless to trace out this progress from its first stages,
up through the caste-divisions of the East and the incor-
porated guilds of Europe, to the elaborate producing and
distributing organization existing among ourselves. It
has been an evolution which, beginning with a tribe whose
members severally perform the same actions each for
himself, ends with a civilized community whose members
severally perform different actions for each other ; and an
evolution which has transformed the solitary producer of
aiiy one commodity into a combination of producers who,
united under a master, take separate parts in the manu-
facture of such commodity. But there are yet other and
higher phases of this advance from the homogeneous to the
heterogeneous in the industrial organization of society.
Long after considerable progress has been made in the
division of labour among different classes of workers, there
is still little or no division of labour among the widely
separated parts of the community : the nation continues
comparatively homogeneous in the respect that in each
district the same occupations are pursued. But when
roads and other means of transit become numerous and
good, the different districts begin to assume different
functions, and to become mutually dependent. The calico
manufacture locates itself in this county, the woollen-cloth
manufacture iu that ; silks are produced here, lace there ;
stockings in one place, shoes in another; pottery, hardware,
cutlery, come to have their special towns ; and ultimately
every locality becomes more or less distinguished from the
rest by the leading occupation carried on in it. This sub-
division of functions shows itself not only among the different
parts of the same nation, but among different nations.
That exchange of commodities which free-trade is increasing

23

PROGRESS : ITS LAW ART) GAUSS.

so largely, will ultimately have the effect of specializing,
in a greater or less degree, the industry of each people.
So that, beginning with a barbarous tribe, almost if not
quite homogeneous iu the functions of its members, the
progress has been, and still is, towards an economic
aggregation of the whole human race; growing ever more
heterogeneous in respect of the separate functions assumed
by separate nations, the separate functions assumed by the
local sections of each nation, the separate functions assumed
by the many kinds of makers and traders in each town, and
the separate functions assumed by the workers united in
producing each commodity.

The law thus clearly exemplified in the evolution of the
social, organism, is exemplified with equal clearness in the
evolution of all products of human thought and action;
whether concrete or abstract, real or ideal. Let us take
Language as onr first illustration.

The lowest form of language is the exclamation, by
which an entire idea is vaguely conveyed through a single
sound, as among the lower animals. That human language
ever consisted solely of exclamations, and so was strictly
homogeneous in respect of its parts of speech, we have no
evidence. But that lang u age can b e tra ce d down to a form in
which .nouns and verbs are its only elements, is an estab-
lished fact. In the gradual multiplication of parts of speech
out of these primary ones— in the differentiation of verbs
into active and passive, of nouns into abstract and concrete
—in the rise of distinctions of mood, tense, person, of
number and case — in the formation of auxiliary verbs, of
adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, articles — in the
divergence of those orders, genera, species, and varieties of
parts of speech by which civilized races express minute
modifications of meaning' — we see a change from the homo-
geneous to the heterogeneous. Another aspect under
which we may trace the development of language is the
divergence of words having common origins. Philology

24

PROGRESS : ITS LAW AND CAUSE.

early disclosed tlie truth that in all languages words maybe
grouped into families, the members of each of which are
allied by their derivation. Names springing from a primi-
tive root, themselves become the parents of other names
still further modified. And by the aid of those systematic
modes which presently arise, of making derivatives and
forming compound terms, there is finally developed a
tribe of words so heterogeneous in sound and meaning,
that to the uninitiated it seems incredible they should be
nearly related. Meanwhile from other roots there are
being evolved other such tribes, until there results a
language of some sixty thousand or more unlike words,
signifying as many unlike objects, qualities, acts. Yet
another way in which language in general advances from
the homogeneous to the heterogeneous, is in the multiplica-
tion of languages. Whether all languages have grown
from one stock, or whether, as some philologists think, they .
have grown from two or more stocks, it is clear that since
large groups of languages, as the Indo-European, are of
one parentage, they have become distinct through a process
of continuous divergence. The same diffusion over the
Earth’s surface which has led to differentiations of race,
has simultaneously led to differentiations of speech : a
truth which we see further illustrated in each nation by
the distinct dialects found in separate districts. Thus the
progress of Language conforms to the general law, alike in
the evolution of languages, in the evolution of families of
words, and in the evolution of parts of speech.

On passing from spoken to written language, we come
upon several classes of facts, having similar impdications.
Written language is connate with Painting and Sculpture ;
and at first all three are appendages of Architecture, and
have a direct connection with the primary form of all
Government — the theocratic. Merely noting by the way
the fact that sundry wild races, as for example the Austra-
lians and the tribes of South Africa, are given to depicting

PROGRESS : ITS LAW AND CAUSE. 25

personages and events upon the walls of eaves, wliicli are
probably regarded as sacred places, let ns pass to the case
of the Egyptians. Among them, as also among the
Assyrians, we find nraral paintings used to decorate the
temple of the god and the palace of the king (which were,
indeed, originally identical) ; and as such they were govern-
mental appliances in the same sense as state-pageants
and religions feasts were. They were governmental
appliances in another way : representing as they did the
worship of the god, the triumphs of the god-king, the sub-
mission of his subjects, and the punishment of the rebellious.
Further, they were governmental, as being the products
of an art reverenced by the people as a sacred mystery.
From the habitual use of this pictorial representation
there grew up the hut-slightly-modified practice of picture-
writing — a practice which was found still extant among
North American peoples at the time they were discovered.
By abbreviations analogous to those still going on in our own
written language, the most frequently-recurring of these
pictured figures were successively simplified; and ultimately
there grew up a system of symbols, most of which had hut
distant resemblances to the things for which they stood.
The inference that the hieroglyphics of the Egyptians were
thus produced, is confirmed by the fact that the picture-
writing of the Mexicans was found to have given birth to
a like family of ideographic forms ; and among them, as
among the Egyptians, these had been partially differentiated
into the Icuriological or imitative, and the tropical or
symbolic; which were, however, used together in the
same record. In Egypt, written language underwent a
further differentiation, whence resulted the hieratic and
the epist olographic or enchorial ; both of which are derived
from the original hieroglyphic. At the same time we find
that for the expression of proper names, which could not he
otherwise conveyed, signs having phonetic values were
employed; and though it is alleged that the Egyptians

26 PROGRESS.; ITS LAW AND CAUSE.

never achieved complete alphabetic writing, yet it can
scarcely be doubted that these phonetic symbols, occasionally
used in aid of their ideographic ones, were the germs of an
alphabetic system. Once having become separate from
hieroglyphics, alphabetic writing itself underwent numerous
differentiations — multiplied alphabets were produced j
between most of which, however, more or less connection
can still be traced. And in each civilized nation there has
now grown up, for the representation of one set of sounds,
several sets of written signs used for distinct purposes.
Finally, from writing diverged printing; which, uniform
in kind as it was at first, has since become multiform.

While written language was passing through its first
stages of development, the mural decoration which con-
tained its root, was being differentiated into Painting and
Sculpture. The gods, kings, men, and animals represented,
were Originally marked by indented outlines and coloured.
In most cases these outlines were of such depth, and the
object they circumscribed so far rounded and marked out
in its leading parts, as to form a species of woi-k inter-
mediate between intaglio and bas-relief. In other cases
we see an advance upon this; the raised spaces between
the figures being chiselled off, and the figures themselves
appropriately tinted, a painted bas-relief was produced.
The restored Assyrian architecture at Sydenham exhibits
this style of art carried to greater perfection — the persons
and things represented, though still barbarously coloured,
are carved out with more truth and in greater detail : and
in the winged lions and hulls used for the angles of
gateways, we may see a considerable advance towards a
completely sculptured figure; which, nevertheless, is still
coloured, and still forms part of the building. But while
in Assyria the production of a statue proper seems to have
beon little, if at all, attempted, we may tr%ce in Egyptian
art the gradual separation of the sculptured figure from
the wall. A walk through the collection in the British

PROGRESS: ITS LAW AND CAUSE. 27

Museum shows this : while at the same time it affords an
opportunity of observing the traces which the independent
statues bear of their derivation from bas-relief : seeing
that nearly all of them not only display that fusion of the
legs with one another and of the arms with the body which
i s characteristic of bas-relief, but have the back united from
head to foot with a block which stands in place of the
original wall. Greece repeated the leading stages of this
progress. On the friezes of Greek Temples, were coloured
bas-reliefs representing sacrifices, battles, processions,
games— -all in some sort religious. The pediments contained
painted sculptures more or less united with the tympanum,
and having for subjects the triumphs of gods or heroes.
Even statues definitely separated from buildings were
coloured,* and only in the later periods of Greek civilization
does the differentiation of Sculpture from Painting appear
to have become complete. In Christian art we may trace
a parallel re-genesis. All early works of art throughout
Europe were religions in subject — represented Christs,
crucifixions, virgins, holy families, apostles, saints. They
formed integral parts of church architecture, and were
among the means of exciting worship ; as in Roman
Catholic countries they still are. Moreover, the sculptured
figures of Christ on the cross, of virgins, of saints, were
coloured; and it needs but to call to mind the painted
madonnas still abundant in continental churches and
highways, to perceive the significant fact that Painting and
Sculpture continue in closest connection with each other
where they continue in closest connection with their parent.
Even when Christian sculpture became differentiated from
painting, it was still religious and governmental in its
subjects — was used for tombs in churches and statues of
kings; while, at the same time, painting, where not
purely ecclesiastical, was applied to the decoration of
palaces, and besides representing royal personages, was
mostly devoted to sacred legends. Only in recent times

28 PROGRESS : ITS LAW AND CAUSE.

hate painting and sculpture become quite separate and
mainly secular. Only -within these few centuries has
Painting been divided into historical, landscape, marine,
architectural, genre, animal, still-life, &c . ; and Sculpture
grown heterogeneous in respect of the variety of real and
ideal subjects with which it occupies itself.

Strange as it seems then, we find that all forms of
written language, of Painting, and of Sculpture, have a
common root in the politico-religious decorations of ancient
temples and. palaces. Little resemblance as they now
have, the landscape that hangs against the wall, and the
copy of the Times lying on the table, are remotely akin.
The brazen face of the knocker which the postman has just
lifted, is related not only to the woodcuts of the Illustrated
London News which he is delivering, but to the characters
of the billet-doux which accompanies it. Between the
painted window, the prayer-hook on which its light falls,
and the adjacent monument, there is consanguinity. The
effigies on our coins, the signs over shops, the coat of arms
outside the carriage panel, and the placards inside the
omnibus, are, in common with dolls and paper-hangings,
lineally descended from the rude sculpture-paintings in
which ancient peoples represented the triumphs and wor-
ship of their god-kings. Perhaps no example can be given
which more vividly illustrates the multiplicity and hetero-
geneity of the products that in course of time may arise by
successive differentiations from a common stock.

Before passing to other classes of facts, it should be
observed that the evolution of the homogeneous into the
heterogeneous is displayed not only in the separation of
Painting and Sculpture from Architecture and from ea< h
other, and in the greater variety of subjects they embody,
but it is further shown in the structure of each work.
A modern picture or statue is of far more heterogeneous
nature than an ancient one. An Egyptian sculpture-fresco
usually represents all its figures as at the same distance

PROGRESS : ITS LAW AND CAUSE.

29

from tlie eye ; and so is less heterogeneous than a painting
that represents them as at various distances from the eye.
It exhibits all objects as exposed to the same degree of
light ; and so is less heterogeneous than a painting which
exhibits its different objects and different parts of each
object as in different degrees of light. It uses chiefly the
primary colours, and these iu their full intensities ; and so
is less heterogeneous than a painting which, introducing
the primary colours but sparingly, employs numerous in-
termediate tints, each of heterogeneous composition, and
differing from the rest not only in quality but in strength.
Moreover, we see in these early works great uniformity of
conception. The same arrangement of figures is perpetually
reproduced — the same actions, attitudes, faces, dresses. In
Egypt the modes of representation were so fixed that it was
sacrilege to introduce a novelty. The Assyrian bas-reliefs
display parallel characters. Deities, kings, attendants,
winged-figures and animals, are time after time depicted in
like positions, holding like implements, doing like things,
and with like expression or non-expression of face. If a
palm-grove is introduced, all the trees are of the same
height, have the same number of leaves, and are equidistant.
When water is imitated, each wave is a counterpart of the
rest; and the fish, almost always of one kind, are evenly
distributed over the surface. The beards of the kings, the
gods, and the winged-figures, are everywhere similar ; as
are the manes of the lions, and equally so those of the
horses. Hair is represented throughout by one form of
curl. The king’s beard is quite architecturally built up of
compound tiers of uniform curls, alternating with twisted
tiers placed in a transverse direction, and arranged with
perfect regularity ; and the terminal tufts of the bulls’ tails
are represented in exactly the same manner. Without
tracing out analogous facts in early Christian art, in which,
though less striking, they are still visible, the advance in
heterogeneity will be sufficiently manifest on remembering

30 PROGRESS : ITS LAW AND CAUSE.

that in the pictures of our own day the composition is end-
lessly varied ; the attitudes, faces, expressions, unlike; the
subordinate objects different -in sizes, forms, textures; and
more or less of contrast even in the smallest details. Or,
if we compare an Egyptian statue, seated bolt upright on a
block, with hands on knees, fingers parallel, eyes looking
straight forward, and the two sides perfectly symmetrical in
every particular, with a statue of the advanced Greek school
or the modern school, which is asymmetrical in respect of
the attitude of the head, the body, the limbs, the arrange-
ment of the hair, dress, appendages, and in its relations to
neighbouring objects, we shall see the change from the
homogeneous to the heterogeneous clearly manifested.

In the co-ordinate origin and gradual differentiation of
Poetry, Music, and Dancing, we have another series of illus-
trations. Rhythm in words, rhythm in sounds, and rhythm
in motions, were in the beginning parts of the same thing,
and have only in process of time become separate things.
Among existing barbarous tribes we find them still united.
The dances of savages are accompanied by some kind of
monotonous chaut, the clapping of hands, the striking of
rude instruments : there are measured movements, mea-
sured words, and measured tones. The early records of
historic races similarly show these three forms of metrical
action united in religious festivals. In the Hebrew writings
we read that the triumphal ode composed by Moses on the
defeat of the Egyptians, was sung to an accompaniment of
dancing and timbrels. The Israelites danced and sung
“at the inauguration of the golden calf. And as it is
generally agreed that this representation of the Deity was
borrowed from the mysteries of Apis, it is probable that the
dancing was copied from that of the Egyptians on those
occasions” Again, in Greece the like relation is every-
where seen: the original type being there, as probably in
other cases, a simultaneous chanting and mimetic represen-
tation of the life and adventures of the hero or the god.

81

PROGRESS : ITS LAW AND CAUSE.

The Spartan dances were accompanied "by hymns and
songs; and in general the Greeks had “no festivals or
religions assemblies hut what were accompanied with songs
and dances ” — both of them being forms of worship used
before altars. Among the Romans, too, there were sacred
dances: the Salian and Lupercalian being named as of
that kind. And even in Christian countries, as at Limoges,
in comparatively recent times, the people have danced in
the choir in honour of a saint. The incipient separation
of these once-united arts from each other and from religion.
Was early visible in Greece. Probably diverging from
dances partly religious, partly warlike, as the Corybantian,
came the war-dances proper, of which there were various
kinds. Meanwhile Music and Poetry, though still united,
came to have an existence separate from Dancing. The
primitive Greek poems, religious in subject, were not recited
but chanted ; and though at first the chant of the poet was
accompanied by the dance of the chorus, it ultimately grew
into independence. Later still, when the poem had been
differentiated into epic and lyric— when it became the cus-
tom to sing the lyric and recite the epic — poetry proper was
born. As during the same period musical instruments were
being multiplied, we may presume that music came to have
an existence apart from words. And both of them were
beginning to assume other forms besides the religious.
Facts having like implications might be cited from the
histories of later times and peoples ; as the practices of
onr own early minstrels, who sang to the harp heroic narra-
tives versified by themselves to music of their own composi-
tion : thus uniting' the now separate offices of poet, composer,
vocalist, and instrumentalist. But, without further illus-
tration, the common origin and gradual differentiation of
Dancing, Poetry, and Music will he sufficiently manifest.

The advance from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous
is displayed not only in the separation of these arts from,
each other and from religion, but also in the multiplied

82

PROGRESS : ITS LAW AND CAUSE,

differentiations which each of them afterwards undergoes.
Not to dwell upon the numberless kinds of dancing* that
have, in course of time, come into use : and not to occupy
space in detailing the progress, of poetry, as seen in the
development of the various forms of metre, of rhyme,
and of general organization; let us confine our attention
to music as a type of the group. As implied by the
customs of still extant barbarous races, the first musical
instruments were, without doubt, percussive sticks,
calabashes, tom-toms — and were used simply to mark the
time of the dance ; and in this constant repetition of the
same sound, we see music in its most homogeneous form.
The Egyptians had a lyre with three strings. The early
lyre of the Greeks had four, constituting their tetrachord.
In course of some centuries lyres of seven and eight strings
were employed; and, by the expiration of a thousand
years, they had advanced to their “ great system ” of the
double octave. Through all which changes there of course
arose a greater heterogeneity of melody. Simultaneously
there came into use the different modes — Dorian, Ionian,
Phrygian, ABolian, and Lydian — answering to our keys ; and
of these there were ultimately fifteen. As yet, however,
there was but little heterogeneity in the time of their music.
Instrumental music being at first merely the accompaniment
of vocal music, and vocal music being subordinated to
words, — the singer "being also the poet, chanting his own
compositions and making the lengths of his notes agree
with the feet of his verses, — there resulted a tiresome
uniformity of measure, which, as Dr. Burney says, “no
resources of melody could disguise.” Lacking the complex
rhythm obtained by onr equal bars and unequal notes, the
only rhythm was that produced by the quantity of tho
syllables, and was of necessity comparatively monotonous.
Andfurther, itmaybe observed that the chant thus resulting,
being like recitative, was much less clearly differentiated
from ordinary speech than is our modem song. Never-

progress: its law and cause.

33

theless, in virtue of the extended range of notes in use, the
variety of modes, the occasional variations of time conse-
quent on changes of metre, and the multiplication of
instruments, music had, towards the close of Greek civiliza-
tion, attained to considerable heterogeneity — not indeed as
compared with our music, but as compared with that which
preceded it. Still, there existed nothing hut melody :
harmony was unknown. It was not until Christian church-
music had reached some development, that music in parts
was evolved; and then it came into existence through a
very unobtrusive differentiation. Difficult as it may be to
conceive a 'priori how the advance from melody to harmony
could take place without a sudden leap, it is none the less
true that it did so. The circumstance which prepared the
way for it was the employment of two choirs singing
alternately the same air. Afterwards it became the prac-
tice — very possibly first suggested by a mistake — for the
second choir to commence before the first had ceased; thus
producing a fugue. With the simple airs then in use, a
partially-harmonious fugue might not improbably thus
result : and a very partially-harmonious fugue satisfied the
ears of that age, as we know from still preserved examples.
The idea having once been given, the composing of airs
productive of fugal harmony would naturally grow up,
as in some way it did grow up, out of this alternate choir-
singing. And from the fugue to concerted music of two,
three, four, and more parts, the transition was easy.
Without pointing out in detail the increasing complexity
that resulted from introducing notes of various lengths,
from the multiplication of keys, from the use of accidentals,
from varieties of time, and so forth, it needs but to contrast
music as it is, with music as it was, to see how immense is
the increase of heterogeneity. We see this if, looking at
music in its ensemble , we enumerate its many different
genera and species — if we consider the divisions into vocal,
instrumental, and mixed ; and their subdivisions into music

34

PROGRESS : ITS LAW AND CAUSE.

for different voices and different instruments — -if we observe
the many forms of sacred music, from the simple hymn,
the chant, the canon, motet, anthem, &c., up to the oratorio;
and the still more numerous forms of secular music, from
the ballad up to the seronata, from the instrumental solo Up
to the symphony. Again, the same truth is seen on com-
paring any one sample of aboriginal music with a sample
of modern music — even an ordinary son g for the piano j
which we find to be relatively very heterogeneous, not only
in respect of the variety in the pitches and in the lengths
of the notes, the number of different notes sounding at the
same instant in company with the voice, and the variations
of strength with which they are sounded and sung, but in
respect of the changes of key, the changes of time, the
changes of timbre of the voice, and the many other modi-
fications of expression. While between the old monotonous
dance-chant and a grand opera of our own day, with its endless
orchestral complexities and vocal combinations, the contrast
in heterogeneity is so extreme that it seems scarcely credible
that the one should have been the ancestor of the other.

.Were they needed, many further illustrations might be
cited. Going back to the early time when the deeds of the
god-king were recorded in picture-writings on the walls of
temples and palaces, and so constituted a rude literature,
we might trace the development of Literature through
phases iu which, as in the Hebrew Scriptures, it presents
in one work theology, cosmogony, history, biography, law,
ethics, poetry ; down to its present heterogeneous develop-
ment, in which its separated divisions and subdivisions
are so numerous and varied as to defy complete classifi-
cation. Or we might trace out the evolution of Science;
beginning with the era iu which it was not yet differentiated
from Art, and was, in union with Art, the handmaid of
Religion ; passing through the era in which the sciences
were so few and rudimentary, as to be simultaneously
cultivated by the same men; and ending with the era

85

PROGRESS : ITS LAW AND CAUSE.

in winch, tlie genera and species are so numerous that
few can enumerate them, and no one can adequately
grasp even one genus. Or we might do the like with
Architecture, with the Drama, with Dress. But doubtless
the reader is already weary of illustrations ; and our
promise has been amply fulfilled. Abundant proof has been
given that the law of organic development formulated by
von Baer, is the law of all development. The advance from
the simple to the complex, through a process of successive
differentiations, is seen alike in the earliest changes of the
Universe to which we can reason our way back, and in the
earliest changes which we can inductively establish; it is
seen in the geologic and climatic evolution of the Earth ;
it is seen in the unfolding of every single organism on its
surface, and in the multiplication of kinds of organisms ;
it is seen in the evolution of Humanity, whether contem-
plated in the civilized individual, or in the aggregate of
races ; it is seen in the evolution of Society in respect alike
of its political, its religious, and its economical organization ;
and it is seen in the evolution of all those endless concrete
and abstract products of human activity which constitute
the environment of our daily life. From the remotest
past which Science can fathom, up to the novelties of
yesterday, that in which progress essentially consists,
is the transformation of the homogeneous into the
heterogeneous.

And now, must not this uniformity of procedure be a
consequence of some fundamental necessity ? May we not
rationally seek for some all-pervading principle which
determines this all-pervading process of things ? Does not
the universality of the law imply a universal cause ?

That we can comprehend such cause, noumenally con-
sidered, is not to be supposed. To do this would be to
solve that ultimate mystery which must ever transcend
human intelligence. But it still may be possible for us to

3G PEO GUESS : ITS LAW AND CAUSE.

reduce tlie law of all progress, alcove set forth, from the
condition of an empirical generalization, to tlie condition
of a rational generalization. Just as .it was possible to
interpret Kepler's laws as necessary consequences of tlie
law of gravitation; so it may be possible to interpret this
law of progress, in its multiform manifestations, as the
necessary consequence of some similarly universal principle.
As gravitation was assignable as the cause of each of the
groups of phenomena which Kepler generalized ; so may
some equally simple attribute of things be assignable as
the cause of each of the groups of phenomena generalized
in the foregoing pages. We may be able to affiliate all
these varied evolutions of tlie homogeneous into the hetero-
geneous, upon certain facts of immediate experience, which,
in virtue of endless repetition, we regard as necessary.

The probability of a common cause, and the possibility
of formulating it, being granted, it will be well, first, to
ask what must be the general characteristics of such cause,
and in what direction we ought to look for it. We can
with certainty predict that it has a high degree of abstract-
ness; seeing that it is common to such infinitely- varied
phenomena. We need not expect to see in it an obvious
solution of this or that form of progress ; because it is
equally concerned with forms of progress bearing little
apparent resemblance to them : its association with multi-
form orders of facts, involves its dissociation from any
particular order of facts. Being that which determines
progress of every kind — astronomic, geologic, organic,
ethnologic, social, economic, artistic, &c. — it must be
involved with some fundamental trait displayed in common
by these; and must be expressible in terms of this funda- '
mental trait. The only obvious respect in which all kinds
of progress are alike, is, that they are modes of change ;
and hence, in some characteristic of changes in general, the
desired solution will probably .be found. We may suspect
a priori that in some universal law of change lies the

PROGRESS : ITS LAW AND CAUSE. . 37

explanation of tills universal transformation of the homo-
geneous into the heterogeneous.

Thus much premised, we pass at once to the statement
of the law, which is this : — Every active force produces more
than one change — every cause 'produces more than one effect.

To make this proposition comprehensible, a few examples
must be given. When one body strikes another, that
which we usually regard as the effect, is a change of
position or motion in one or both bodies. But a moment’s
thought shows us that this is a very incomplete view of the
matter. Besides the visible mechanical result, sound is
produced; or, to speak accurately, a vibration in one or
both bodies, which is communicated to the surrounding air ;
and under some circumstances we call this the effect.
Moreover, the air has not only been made to undulate, but
has had currents caused in it by the transit of the bodies.
Further, there is a disarrangement of the particles of the
two bodies in the neighbourhood of their point of collision ;
amounting, in some cases, to a visible condensation. Yet
more, this condensation is accompanied by the disengage-
ment of heat. In some cases a spark — that is, light —
results, from the incandescence of a portion struck off ;
and sometimes this incandescence is associated with chemi-
cal combination. Thus, by the mechanical force expended
in the collision, at least five, and often more, different kinds
of changes have been produced. Take, again, the lighting
of a candle. Primarily this is a chemical change con-
sequent on a rise of temperature. The process of combina-
tion having once been started by extraneous heat, there is
a continued formation of carbonic acid, water, &c. — in
itself a result more complex than the extraneous heat that
first caused it. But accompanying this process of combina-
tion there is a production of heat; there is a production of
light; there is an ascending column of hot gases generated;
there are inflowing currents set going in the surrounding
air. Moreover, the complicating of effects does not end

88 ' PROGRESS : ITS LAW AND CAUSE.

here : each of the several changes produced becomes the
parent of further changes. The carbonic acid given off will
by and by combine with some base; or under the influence
of sunshine give up its carbon to the leaf of a plant. The
water will modify the hygrometric state of the air around;
or, if the current of hot gases containing it comes against
a cold body, will be condensed : altering the temperature
of the surface it covers. The heat given out melts the
subjacent tallow, and expands whatever it warms. The
light, falling on various substances, calls forth from them
reactions by which its composition is modified; and so
divers colours are produced. Similarly even with these
secondary actions, which may be traced out into ever-
multiplying ramifications, until they become too minute to
be appreciated. And thus it is with all changes whatever.
No case can be named in which an active force does not evolve
forces of several kinds/and each of these, other groups of
forces. Universally the effect is more complex than the cause.

Doubtless the reader already foresees the course of our
argument. This multiplication of effects, which is displayed
in every event of to-day, has been going on from the
beginning ; and is true of the grandest phenomena of the
universe as of the most insignificant. From the law that
every active force produces more than one change, it is an
inevitable corollary that during the past there has been an
ever-growing complication of things. Throughout creation
there must have gone on, and must still go on, a never-
ceasing transformation of the homogeneous into the hetero-
geneous. Let us trace this truth in detail.

Without committing ourselves to it as more than a
speculation, though a highly probable one, let us again
commence with the evolution of the Solar System out of a
nebulous medium. The hypothesis is that from the mutual
attraction of the molecules of a diffused mass whose form
is unsymmetrical, there results not only condensation but
rotation. While the condensation and the rate of rotation

PROGRESS; ITS LAW AND CAUSE.

39

go on increasing*, tlie approach of the molecules is neces-
sarily accompanied hy an increasing temperature. As the
temperature rises, light begins to be evolved; and
ultimately there results a revolving sphere of fluid matter
radiating intense heat and light — a sun. There are reasons
for believing that, in consequence of the hig her tangen tial
velo city originally p oss essed b y the outer parts of the con-
densing nebulous mass, there will be occasional detachments
of rotating rings; and that, from the breaking up of these
nebulous rings, there will arise masses which in the course
of their condensation repeat the actions of the parent mass,
and so produce planets and their satellites — an inference
strongly supported by the still extant rings of Saturn.
Should it hereafter be satisfactorily shown that planets and
satellites were thus generated, a striking illustration will
be afforded of the highly heterogeneous effects produced by
the primary homogeneous cause; but it will serve our
present purpose to point to the fact that from the mutual
attraction of the particles of an irregular nebulous mass
there result condensation, rotation, heat, and light.

It follows as a corollary from the Nebular Hypothesis,
that the Earth must once have been incandescent ; and
whether the Nebular Hypothesis be true or not, this
original incandescence of the Earth is now inductively
established — or, if not established, at least rendered so
highly probable that it is an accepted geological doctrine.
Let ns look first at the astronomical attributes of this once
molten globe. Erom its rotation there result the oblateness
of its form, the alternations of day and night, and (under
the influence of the moon and in a smaller degree the sun)
the tides, aqueous and atmospheric. From the inclination
of its axis, there result the many differences of the seasons,
both simultaneous and successive, that pervade its surface,
and from the same cause joined with the action of the
moon on the equatorial protuberance there results the
precession of the equinoxes. Thus the multiplication of

40 PROGRESS : ITS LAW AND CAUSE.

effects is obvious. Several of the differentiations due to
tlie gradual cooling of the Earth have been already noticed
—as the formation of a crust, the solidification of sublimed
elements, the precipitation of water, &c., — and we here
again refer to them merely to point out that they are
simultaneous effects of the one cause, diminishing heat. Let
ns now, however, observe the multiplied changes afterwards
arising from the continuance of this one cause. The
cooling of the Earth involves its contraction. Hence the
solid crust first formed is presently too large for the
shrinking nucleus ; and as it cannot support itself, inevit-
ably follows the nucleus. But a spheroidal envelope
cannot sink down into contact with a smaller internal
Spheroid, without disruption: it must run into wrinkles as
the rind of an apple does when the bulk of its interior
decreases from evaporation. As the cooling progresses
and the envelope thickens, the ridges consequent on these
contractions will become greater, rising ultimately into
hills and mountains ; and the later systems of mountains
thus produced will not only be higher, as we find them to
be, but will be longer, as we also find them to be. Thus,:
leaving out of view other modifying forces, we see what
immense heterogeneity of surface has arisen from the one
cause, loss of heat— a heterogeneity which the telescope
shows us to be paralleled on the face of Mars, and which
in the moon too, where aqueous and atmospheric agencies
have been absent, it reveals under a somewhat different
form. But we have yet to notice another kind of hetero-
geneity of surface similarly and simultaneously caused.
While the Earth’s crust was still thin, the ridges produced
by its contraction must not only have been small, but the
spaces between ; these ridges must have rested with great
evenness upon the subjacent liquid spheroid ; and the
water in those arctic and antarctic regions in which it
first condensed, must have been evenly distributed. But
as fast as the crust thickened and gained corresponding

PROGRESS : ITS LAW AND CAUSE.

41

strength, the lines of fracture from time to time caused
in it,> must have occurred at greater distances apart ; the
intermediate surfaces must have followed the contracting
nucleus with less uniformity ; and there must have resulted
larger areas of land and water. If any one, after wrapping
up an orange in tissue paper/ and observing not only how
small are the wrinkles, but how evenly the intervening
spaces lie upon the surface of the orange, will then wrap it
up in thick cartridge-paper, and note both the greater
height of the ridges and the larger spaces throughout
•which the paper does not touch the orange, he will realise
the fact that, as the Earth's solid envelope grew thicker,
the areas of elevation and depression increased. In place
of islands homogeneously dispersed amid an all-embracing
sea, there must have gradually arisen heterogeneous
arrangements of continent and ocean. Once more, this
double change in the extent and in the elevation of the
lands, involved yet another species of heterogeneity — that
of coast-line. A tolerably even surface raised out of the
ocean must have a simple, regular sea-margin; but a
surface varied by table-lands and intersected by mountain-
chains must, when raised out of the ocean, have an outline
extremely irregular both in its leading features and in its
details. Thus, multitudinous geological and geographical
results are slowly brought about by this one cause — the
contraction of the Earth.

When we pass from the agency termed igneous, to
aqueous and atmospheric agencies, we see the like ever-
growing complications of effects. The denuding actions of
air and water, joined with those of changing temperature,
have, from the beginning, been modifying every exposed
surface. Oxidation, heat, wind, frost, rain, glaciers, rivers,
tides, waves, have been unceasingly producing disintegra-
tion; varying in kind and amount according to local cir-
cumstances. Acting upon a trapt of granite, they here
work scarcely an appreciable effect ; there cause exfoliations

42

PROGRESS : ITS LAW AND CAUSE.

of the surface; and a resulting heap of debris and boulders;
and elsewhere, after decomposing tlie feldspar into a white
clay, carry away this and the accompanying quartz and
mica, and deposit them in separate beds, fluviatile and
marine. 'When the exposed land consists of several unlike
kinds of sedimentary strata, or igneous rocks, or both,
denudation produces changes proportionably more lietero-
geneons. The formations being disintegrable in different
degrees, there follows an increased irregularity of surface.
The areas drained by different rivers being differently
constituted, these rivers carry down to the Sea different
combinations of ingredients; and so sundry new strata of
unlike compositions are formed. And here we may see
very simply illustrated, the truth, which we shall presently
have to trace out in more involved cases, that- in propor-
tion to the heterogeneity of the object or objects on which
any force expends itself, is the heterogeneity of the effects.
A continent of complex structure, exposing many strata
irregularly distributed, raised to various levels, tilted up at
all angles, will, under the same denuding agencies, give
origin to innumerable and involved results : each district
must be differently modified ; each river must carry down a
different kind of detritus ; each deposit must be differently
distributed by the entangled currents, tidal and other,
which wash tlie contorted shores ; and this multiplication
of results must manifestly be greatest where the complexity
of surface is greatest.

Here we might show how the general truth, that every
active force produces more than one change, is again ex-
emplified in the highly-involved flow of the tides, in the
ocean currents, in the winds, in the distribution of rain, in
the distribution of heat, and so ■■forth. But not to dwell
Upon these, let us, for the fuller elucidation of this truth in
relation to the inorganic world, consider what would be the
consequences of some extensive cosmical catastrophe — say
the subsidence- of Central America, The immediate results

PROGRESS i ITS LAW AND CAUSE. 43

of the disturbance would themselves be sufficiently complex.
Besides the numberless dislocations of strata, the ejections
of igneous matter, the propagation of earthquake vibrations
thousands of miles around, the loud explosions, and the
escape of gases; there would be the rush of the Atlantic
and Pacific Oceans to fill the vacant space, the subsequent
recoil of enormous waves, which would traverse both , these
oceans and produce myriads of changes along their shores,
the corresponding atmospheric waves complicated by the
currents surrounding each volcanic vent, and the electrical
discharges with which such disturbances are accompanied.
But these temporary effects would be insignificant compared
with the permanent ones. The currents of the Atlantic
and Pacific would be altered in their directions and
amounts. The distribution of heat achieved by these ocean
currents would be different from what it is. The arrange-
ment of the isothermal lines, not only on neighbouring
continents, but even throughout Europe, would be changed.
The tides would flow differently from what they do now.
There would be more or less modification of the winds in
their periods, strengths, directions, qualities. Rain would
fall scarcely anywhere at the same times and in the same
quantities as at present. In short, the meteorological con-
ditions thousands of miles off, on all sides, would be more
or less revolutionized. Thus, without taking into account
the infinitude of modifications which these changes would
produce upon the flora and fauna, both of land and sea, the
reader will perceive the immense heterogeneity of the
results wrought out by one force, when that force expends
itself upon a previously complicated area; and he will
draw the corollary that from the beginning the complication
has advanced at an increasing rate.

Before going on to show how organic progress also
depends on the law that every force produces more than
one change, we have to notice the manifestation of this
law in yet another species of inorganic progress — namely.

chemical. The same general causes that have wrought
out the heterogeneity of the Barth, physically considered,
have simultaneously wrought out its chemical heterogeneity.
There is every reason to believe that at an extreme heat
the elements cannot combine. Even under such heat as
can be artificially produced, some very strong affinities
yield, as, for instance, that of oxygen for hydrogen; and
the great majority of chemical compounds are decomposed
at much lower temperatures. But without insisting on
the highly probable inference, that when the Earth was
in its first state of incandescence there were no chemical
combinations at all, it will suffice for our purpose to point to
the unquestionable fact that the compounds which can exist
at the highest temperatures, and which must, therefore, have
been the first that were formed as the Earth cooled, are
those of the simplest constitutions. The protoxides—
including under that head the alkalies, earths, &c. — are,
as a class, the most stable compounds we know: most of
them resisting decomposition by any heat we can generate.
These are combinations of the simplest order — are but
one degree less homogeneous than the elements themselves.
More heterogeneous, less stable, and therefore later in the
Earth’s history, are the deutoxides, tritoxides, peroxides,
<&c.; in which two, three, four, or more atoms of oxygen
are united with one atom of metal or other element.
Higher than these in heterogeneity .are the hydrates)
in which an oxide of hydrogen, united with an oxide of
some other element, forms a substance whose atoms
severally contain at least four ultimate atoms of three
different kinds. Yet more heterogeneous and less stable
still are the salts; which present us with molecules each
made up of five, six, seven, eight, ten, twelve, or more
atoms, of three, if not more, kinds. Then there are the
hydrated salts, of a yet greater heterogeneity, which undergo
partial decomposition at much lower temperatures. After
them come the further complicated supersalts and double

progress: its law and cause.

45

salts, Laving a stability again decreased ; and so through-
ont. Without entering into qualifications for wLicL space
fails, we believe no chemist will deny it to be a general law
of these inorganic combinations that, other things eqnat,
the stability decreases as the complexity increases. When
we pass to the compounds of organic chemistry, we find
this general law still: further exemplified: we find much
greater complexity and much less stability. A molecule
of albumen, for instance, consists of 482 ultimate atoms
of five different kinds. Fibrine, still more intricate in.
constitution, contains in each molecule, 298 atoms of
carbon, 49 of nitrogen, 2 of sulphur, 228 of hydrogen, and
92 of oxygen — in all, 669 atoms; or, more strictly speaking,
equivalents. And these two substances are so unstable
as to decompose at quite ordinary temperatures; as that
to which the outside of a joint of roast meat is exposed.
Thus it is manifest that the present chemical heterogeneity
of the Earth’s surface has arisen by degrees, as the
decrease of heat has permitted; and that it has shown
itself in three forms — first, in the multiplication of chemical
compounds; second, in the greater number of different
elements contained in the more modern of these compounds ;
and third, in the higher and more varied multiples in which
these more numerous elements combine.

To say that this advance in chemical heterogeneity is
due to the one cause, diminution of the Earth’s temperature,
would be to say too much; for it is clear that aqueous and
atmospheric agencies have been concerned; and further,
that the affinities of the elements themselves are implied.
The cause has all along been a composite one: the cooling
of the "Earth having been simply the most general of the
concurrent causes, or assemblage of conditions. And here,
indeed, it may be remarked that in the several classes of
facts already dealt with (excepting*, perhaps, the first),
and still more in those with which we shall presently deal,
the causes are more or less compound; as indeed are

nearly all causes with which we are acquainted. Scarcely
any change can. rightly he ascribed to one agency alone, to
the neglect of the permanent or temporary conditions
under which only this agency produces the change . But
as it does not materially affect our argument, we prefer, for
simplicity’s sake, to use throughout the popular mode of
expression. Perhaps it will be further objected, that to
assign loss of heat as the cause of any changes, is to
attribute these changes not to a force, but to the absence
of a force. And this is true. Strictly speaking, tho
changes should be attributed to those forces which come
into action when the antagonist force is withdrawn. But
though there is inaccuracy in saying that the freezing of
water is due to the loss of its heat, no practical error arises
from it ; nor will a parallel laxity of expression vitiate our
statements respecting the multiplication of effects. Indeed,
the objection serves but to draw attention to the fact, that
not only does the exertion of a force produce more than
one change, bub the withdrawal of a force produces more
than one change.

Returning to the thread of our exposition, we have next
to trace, throughout organic progress, this same all-
pervading principle. And here, where the evolution of
the homogeneous into the heterogeneous was first observed,
the production of many effects by one cause is least easy
to demonstrate. The development of a seed into a plant,
or an ovum into an animal, is so gradual, while the forces
which determine it are so involved, and at the same time
so unobtrusive, that it is difficult to detect the multipli-
cation of effects which is elsewhere so obvious. But,
guided by indirect evidence, we may safely conclude
that here too the law holds. Note, first, how numerous
are the changes which any marked action works upon an
adult organism — a human being, for instance. An alarm-
ing sound or sight, besides the impressions on the organs
of sense and the nerves, may produce a start, a scream, a

PROGRESS : ITS LAW AND CAUSE. 47

distortion of tlie face, a trembling consequent on general
muscular relaxation, a burst of perspiration, a rusli of
blood to the brain, followed possibly by arrest of tbe heart’s
action and by syncope j and if tbe subject be feeble, an
indisposition with its long train of complicated symptoms
may set in. Similarly in cases of disease. A minute
portion of tbe small-pox virus introduced into the system,
will, in a severe case, cause, during the first stage, rigors,
heat of skin, accelerated pulse, furred tongue, loss of
appetite, thirst, epigastric uneasiness, vomiting, headache,
pains in the back and limbs, muscular weakness, convulsions,
delirium, &c. ; in the second stage, cutaneous eruption,
itching, tingling, sore throat, swelled fauces, salivation,
cough, hoarseness, dyspnoea, &c. ; and in the third stage,
cedematous inflammations, pneumonia, pleurisy, diarrhoea,
inflammation of the brain, ophthalmia, erysipelas, &c. :
each of which enumerated symptoms is itself more or less
complex. Medicines, special foods, better air, might in
like manner be instanced as producing muitipled results.
Now it needs only to consider that the many changes thus
wrought by one force upon an adult organism, will be in
part paralleled in an embryo organism, to understand how
here also, the evolution of the homogeneous into the
heterogeneous may be due to the production of many
effects by one cause. The external heat, which, failing
on a matter having special proclivities, determines the
first complications of the germ, may, by acting on these,
superinduce further complications ; upon these still higher
and more numerous ones ; and so on continually •. each
organ as it is developed serving, by its actions and reactions
on the rest, to initiate new complexities. The first
pulsations of the festal heart must simultaneously aid the
unfolding of every part. The growth of each tissue, by
taking from the blood special proportions of elements, must
modify the constitution of the blood ; and so must modify
the nutrition of all the other tissues. The heart’s action.

48 PROGRESS: ITS LAW AND CAUSE.

implying as it does a certain waste, necessitates an addition
to the blood of effete matters, which must influence the
rest of the system, and perhaps, as some think, cause the
formation of excretory organs. The nervous connexions
established among the viscera must further multiply their
mutual influences; and so continually. Still stronger
becomes the probability of this view when we call to mind
the fact, that the same germ may be evolved into different
forms according to circumstances. Thus, during its earlier
stages, every embryo is sexless — becomes either male
or female as the balance of forces acting on it deter-
mines. Again, it is a well-established fact that the larva
of a working-bee will develop into a queen-bee, if before it is
too late, its food be changed to that on which the larvse of
queen-bees are fed. All which instances suggest that the
proximate cause of each advance in embryonic complication
is the action of incident forces upon the complication
previously existing. Indeed, we may find a 'priori reason
to think that the evolution proceeds after this manner.
For since no germ, animal or vegetal, contains the slightest
rudiment or indication of the future organism — since the
microscope has shown us that the first process set up in
every fertilized germ, is a process of repeated spontaneous
fissions ending in the pi'oduetion of a mass of cells, not one
of which exhibits any special character; there seems no
alternative but to suppose that the partial organization at
any moment existing in a growing embryo, is transformed
by the agencies acting upon it into the succeeding phase of
organization, and this into the next, until, through ever-
increasing complexities, the ultimate form is reached. Not
indeed that we can thus really explain the production of
any plant or animal. We are still in the dark respecting
those mysterious properties in virtue of which the germ,
when subject to fit influences, undergoes the special
changes that begin the series of transformations. All we
aim to show, is, that given a germ possessing those

PROGRESS : ITS LAW AND CAUSE.

4ft

particular proclivities distinguishing the species to which
it belongs, and the evolution of an organism from it,
probably depends on that multiplication of effects which
we have seen to be the cause of progress in general, so far
as we have yet traced it.

When, leaving the development of single plants and
animals, we pass to that of the Earth's flora and fauna, the
course of our argument again becomes clear and simple.
Though, as was admitted in the first part of this article,
the fragmentary facts Paleontology has accumulated, do
not clearly warrant us in saving that, in the lapse of
geologic time, there have been evolved more heterogeneous
organisms, and more heterogeneous assemblages of organ-
isms, yet we shall now see that there must ever have been
a tendency towards these results. We shall find that the
production of many effects by one cause, which as already
shown, has been all along increasing the physical hetero-
geneity of the Earth, has further involved an increasing
heterogeneity in its flora and fauna, individually and
collectively. An illustration will make this clear. Suppose
that by a series of upheavals, occurring, as they are now
known to do, at long intervals, the East Indian Archipelago
were to be, step by step, raised into a continent, and a
chain of mountains formed along the axis of elevation.
By the first of these upheavals, the plants and animals
inhabiting Borneo, Sumatra, New Guinea, and the rest,
would be subjected to slightly modified sets of conditions.
The climate in general would be altered in temperature, in
humidity, and in its periodical variations ; while the local
differences would be multiplied. These modifications would
affect, perhaps inappreciably, the entire flora and fauna of
the region. The change of level would produce additional
modifications : varying in different species, and also in
different members of the same species, according to their
distance from the axis of elevation. Plants, growing only
on the sea-shore in special localities, might become extinct.

50

PROGRESS : ITS LAW AND CAUSE.

Others, living only in swamps of a certain humidity, would,
if they survived at all, probably undergo visible changes of
appearance. While still greater alterations would occur in
the plants gradually spreading over the lands newly raised
above the sea. The animals and insects living on these
modified plants, would themselves be in some degree modi-
fied by change of food, as well as by change of climate ;
and the modification would be more marked where, from
the dwindling or disappearance of one kind of plant, an
allied kind was eaten. In the lapse of the many genera-
tions arising before the next upheaval, the sensible or
insensible alterations thus produced in each species would
become organized— there would be a more or less complete
adaptation to the new conditions. The next upheaval
would superinduce further organic changes, implying wider
divergences from the primary forms; and so repeatedly.
But now let it be observed that the revolution thus result-
ing would not be a substitution of a thousand more or less
modified species for the thousand original species ; but in
place of the thousand original species there would arise
several thousand species, or varieties, or changed forms.
Each species being distributed over an area of some extent,
and tending continually to colonize the new area exposed,
its different members would be subject to different sets of
changes. Plants and animals spreading towards the equator
would not be affected in the same way as others spreading
from it. Those spreading towards the new shores would
undergo changes unlike the changes undergone by those
spreading into the mountains. Thus, each original race of
organisms, wouldbecome the rootfrom which diverged several
races differing more or less from it and from each other; and
while some of these might subseqnently disappear, probably
more than one would survive in the next geologic period j
the very dispersion itself increasing the chances of survival.
Not only would there be certain modifications thus caused
by change of physical conditions and food, but also in some

PEOGBESS: ITS LAW AND CAUSE.

51

cases otlier modifications caused by change of habit. The
fauna of each island, peopling, step by step, the newly-
raised tracts, would eventually come in contact with the
faunas of other islands ; and some members of these other
faunas would be unlike any creatures before seen. Herbivores
meeting with new beasts of prey, would, in some cases,
be led into modes of defence or escape differing from
those previously used; and simultaneously the beasts of
prey would modify their inodes of pursuit and attack.
We know that when circumstances demand it, such changes
of habit do take place in animals ; and we know that if the
new habits become the dominant ones, they must eventually
in some degree alter the organization. Observe now, how-
ever, a further consequence. There must arise not simply a
tendency towards the differentiation of each race of organ-
isms into several races ; but also a tendency to the occasional
production of a somewhat higher organism. Taken in
the mass these divergent varieties which have been caused
by fresh physical conditions and habits of life, will exhibit
changes quite indefinite in kind and degree; and changes
that do not necessarily constitute an advance. Probably in
most cases the modified type will be neither more nor less
heterogeneous than the original one. In some cases the
habits of life adopted being simpler than before, a less
heterogeneous structure will result : there will be a retro-
gradation. But it must now aud then occur, that some
division of a species, falling into circumstances which give
it rather more complex experiences, and demand actions
somewhat more involved, will have certain of its organs
further differentiated in proportionately small degrees, —
will become slightly more heterogeneous. Thus, in the
natural course of things, there will from time to time arise
an increased heterogeneity both of the Earth’s flora and
fauna, and of individual races included in them. Omitting
detailed explanations, and allowing for the qualifications
which cannot here be specified, we think it is clear that

52 PROGRESS : ITS LAW AND CAUSE.

geological mutations Lays all along tended to complicate
the forms of life, whether regarded separately or collectively.
The same causes which have led to the evolution of the
Earth’s crust from the simple into the complex, have
simultaneously led to a parallel evolution of the Life upon
its surface. In this case, as in previous ones, we see that
the transformation of the homogeneous into the hetero-
geneous is consequent upon the universal principle, that
every active force produces more than one change.

The deduction here drawn from the established truths of
geology and the general laws of life, gains immensely in
weight on finding it to be in harmony with an induction
drawn from direct experience. Just that divergence of
many races from one race, which we inferred must have
been continually occurring during geologic time, we know
to have occurred during the pre-historic and historic
periods, in man and domestic animals. And just that
multiplication of effects which we concluded must have
pioduced the first, we see has produced the last. Single
causes, as famine, pressure of population, war, have
periodically led to further dispersions of mankind and of
dependent creatures : each such dispersion initiating new
modifications, new varieties of type. Whether all the
human races be or be not derived from one stock,
philology makes it clear that who l e gr oups of races now
easily distinguishable fr rn each other, were originally one
race, — that the diffusion of one race into different climates
and conditions of existence, has produced many modified
forms of it. Similarly with domestic animals. Though in
some cases— -as that of dogs — community of origin will
perhaps be disputed, yet in other cases — as that of the
sheep or the cattle of our own country— -it will not bo
questioned that local differences of climate, food, and
treatment, have transformed one original breed into
numerous breeds now become so far distinct as to produce
unstable hybrids. Moreover, through the complication of

58

PROGRESS ; ITS LAW AND CAUSE.

effects flowing from single causes, we here find, what we
before inferred, not only an increase of general hetero-
geneity, but also of special heterogeneity. While of the
divergent divisions and subdivisions of the human race
many have undergone changes not constituting an advance ;
while in some the type may have degraded j in others it
has become decidedly more heterogeneous. The civilized
European departs more widely from the vertebrate arche-
type than does the savage. Thus, both the law and the
cause of progress, which, from lack of evidence, can be but
hypothetically substantiated in respect of the earlier forms
of life on our globe, can be actually substantiated in
respect of the latest forms.*

If the advance of Man towards greater heterogeneity is
traceable to the production of many effects by one cause,
still more clearly may the advance of Society towards
greater heterogeneity be so explained. Consider the
growth of an industrial organization. When, as must
occasionally happen, some member of a tribe displays
unusual aptitude for making an article of general use— a
weapon, for instance— which was before made by each
man for himself, there arises a tendency towards the

* The argument concerning organic evolution contained in this paragraph
and the one preceding it, stands verbatim as it did when first published in
the Westminster Review for April, 1857. I have thus left it without the
alteration of a word that it may show the view I then held concerning the
origin of species. The sole cause recognized is that of direct adaptation of
constitution to conditions consequent on inheritance of the modifications of
structure resulting from use and disuse. There is no recognition of that
further cause disclosed in Mr. Darwin’s work, published two and a half years
later — the indirect adaptation resulting from the natural selection of f avour-
able variations. The multiplication of effects is, however, equally illus-
trated in whatever way the adaptation to changing conditions is effected, or
if it is effected in both ways, as I hold. I may add that there is indicated
the view that the succession of organic forms is not serial but proceeds by
perpetual divergence and re-divergence— that there has been a continual
“ divergence of many races from one race ” : each species being a “ root ”
from which several other species branch out; and the growth of a tree being
thus the implied symbol.

54 PROGRESS : ITS LAW AL T D CAUSE.

differentiation of that member into a maker of such weapon.
His companions — warriors and hunters all of them, — *
severally feel the importance of having the best weapons
that can be made; and are therefore certain to offer strong
inducements to this skilled individual to make weapons for
them. He, on the other hand, having not only an unusual
faculty, but an unusual liking, for making such weapons
(the talent and the desire for any occupation being com-
monly associated), is predisposed to fulfil each commission
on the offer of an adequate reward : especially as his love
of distinction is also gratified and his living facilitated.
This first specialization of function, once commenced, tends
ever to become more decided. On the side of the weapon-
maker practice gives increased skill — increased superiority
to his products. On the side of his clients, cessation of
practice entails decreased skill. Thus the influences which
determine this division of labour grow stronger in both
ways ; and the incipient heterogeneity is, on the average
of cases, likely to become permanent for that generation if
no longer. This process not only differentiates the social
mass into two parts, the one monopolizing, or almost
monopolizing, the performance of a certain function, and
the other losing the habit, and in some measure the
power, of performing that function j but it tends to initiate
other differentiations. The advance described implies the
introduction of barter, — the maker of weapons has, on each
occasion, to be paid in such other articles as he agrees to
take in exchange. He will not habitually take in exchange
one kind of article, but many kinds. He does not want mats
only, or skins, or fishing-gear, but he wants all these, and
on each occasion will bargain for the particular things he
most needs. What follows ? If among his fellows there exist
any slight differences of skill in the manufacture of these
various things, as there are almost sure to do, the 'weapon-
maker will take from each one the thing which that one
excels in making : he will exchange for mats with him

PROGRESS : ITS LAW AND CARS®. 55

Whose mats are superior, and will "bargain for the fishing-
gear of him who lias the best. But lie who has bartered
away his mats or his fishing-gear, must make other mats or
fishing-gear for himself ; and in so doing must, in some
degree, further develop his aptitude. Thus it results that
the small specialities of faculty possessed by various mem-
bers of the tribe, will tend to grow more decided. And
whether or not there ensue distinct differentiations of other
individuals into makers of particular articles, it is clear that
incipient differentiations take place throughout the tribe :
the one original cause produces not only the first dual
effect, but a number of secondary dual effects, like in kind,
but minor in degree. This process, of which traces may be
seen among schoolboys, cannot well produce lasting effects
in an unsettled tribe ; but where there grows up a fixed
and multiplying community, such differentiations become
permanent, and increase with each generation. The en-
hanced demand for every commodity, intensifies the func-
tional activity of each specialized person or class ; and
this renders the specialization more definite where it already
exists, and establishes it where it is but nascent. By in-
creasing’ the pressure on the means of subsistence, a larger
population again augments these results ; seeing that each
person is forced more and more to confine himself to that
which he can do best, and by which he can gain most.
Presently, under these same stimuli, new occupations arise.
Competing workers, ever aiming to produce improved
articles, occasionally discover better processes or raw
materials. The substitution of bronze for stone entails on
him who first makes it a great increase of demand ; so that
he or his successor eventually finds all his time occupied in
making the bronze for the articles he sells, and is obliged
to depute the fashioning of these articles to others ; and,
eventually, the making of bronze, thus differentiated from
a pre-existing occupation, becomes an occupation by itself.
But now mark the ramified changes which follow this

56

PROGRESS : ITS LAW AND CAUSE.

change. Bronze presently replaces stone, not only in the
articles it was first used for, hut in many others — in arms,
tools, and utensils of various kinds: and so affects the
manufacture of them. Further, it affects the processes
which these utensils subserve, and the resulting products,
— modifies buildings, carvings, personal decorations. Yet
again, it sets going manufactures which were before im-
possible, from lack of a material fit for the requisite imple-
ments. And all these changes react on the people— increase
their manipulative skill, their intelligence, their comfort,—
refine their habits and tastes. Thus the evolution of a
homogeneous society into a heterogeneous one, is clearly
consequent on the general principle, that many effects are
produced by one cause.

Space permitting, we might show how the localization of
special industries in special parts of a kingdom, as well as
the minute subdivision of labour in the making of each
commodity, are similarly determined. Or, turning to a
somewhat different order of illustrations, we might dwell
on the multitudinous changes— material, intellectual, moral,
—caused by printing; or the further extensive series of
changes wrought by gunpowder. But leaving the inter-
mediate phases of social development, let us take a few
illustrations from its most recent and its passing phases.
To trace the effects of steam-power, in its manifold applica-
tions to mining, navigation, and manufactures of all kinds,
would carry us into unmanageable detail. Let us confine
ourselves to the latest embodiment of steam power— the
locomotive engine. This, as the proximate cause of our
railway system, has changed the face of the country, the
course of trade, and the habits of the people. Consider,
first, the complicated sets of changes that precede the
making of every railway — the provisional arrangements,
the meetings, the registration, the trial section, the
parliamentary survey, the lithographed plans, the books of
reference, the local deposits and notices, the application to

57

PROGRESS : ITS LAW AL T D CAUSE,

Parliament, tLe passing Standing Orders Committee, tlie
first, second, and third readings : each of winch brief heads
indicates a multiplicity of transactions, and the extra
development of sundry occupations— as those of engineers, ;
surveyors, lithographers, parliamentary agents, share-
brokers; and the creation of sundry others — as those of
traffic-takers, reference-takers. Consider, next, the yet
more marked changes implied in railway construction— the
cuttings, embankings, tunnellings, diversions of roads ;
the building of bridges and stations, the laying down of
ballast, sleepers, and rails ; the making of engines, tenders,
carriages, and waggons: which processes, acting on
numerous trades, increase the importation of timber, the
quarrying of stone, the manufacture of iron, the mining of
coal, the burning of bricks ; institute a variety of special
manufactures weekly advertised in the Railway Times ;
and, finally, open the way to sundry new occupations, as
those of drivers, stokers, cleaners, plate-layers, &c., &o.
And then consider the changes, still more numerous
and involved, which railways in action produce on the
community at large. Business agencies are established
where previously they would not have paid; goods are
obtained from remote wholesale houses instead of near
retail ones; and commodities are used which distance once
rendered inaccessible. Again, the diminished cost of
carriage tends to specialize more than ever the industries
of different districts — to confine each manufacture to the
parts in which, from local advantages, it can be best
carried on. Further, the fall in freights, facilitating
distribution, equalizes prices, and also, on the average,
lo wers prices : thus bringing divers articles within t«_^
means of those before unable to buy them, and so increasing
their comforts and improving their habits. At the same
time the practice of travelling is immensely extended.
People who never before dreamed of it, take trips to the
sea; visit their distant relations; make’ tours ; and so we

are benefited in body, feelings, and ideas. Tlio more
prompt transmission of letters and of news produces other
marked changes — makes the pulse of the nation faster.
Once more, there arises a wide dissemination of cheap
literature through railway book-stalls, and of advertisements
in railway carriages : both of them aiding ulterior progress.
And the countless changes here briefly indicated are
consequent on the invention of the locomotive engine. The
social organism has been rendered more heterogeneous in
virtue of the many new occupations introduced, and the
many old ones further specialized ; prices of nearly all
things in every place have been altered ; each trader has
modified his way of doing business ; and every person bas
been affected in his actions, thoughts, emotions.

Illustrations to the same effect might be indefinitely
accumulated, but they are needless. The only further fact
demanding notice, is, that we here see still more clearly the
truth before pointed out, that in proportion as the area on
which any force expends itself becomes heterogeneous, the
results are in a yet higher degree multiplied in number and
kind. While among the simple tribes to whom it was first
known, caoutchouc caused but few changes, among our-
selves the changes have been so many and varied that the
history of them occupies a volume.* Upon the small,
homogeneous community inhabiting one of the Hebrides,
the electric telegraph would produce, were it used, scarcely
any results; but in England the results it produces are
multitudinous. The comparatively simple organization
under which our ancestors lived five centuries ago, could
have undergone but few modifications from an event like
the recent one at Canton ; but now, the legislative decision
respecting itsets up many hundreds of complex modifications,
each of which will be the parent of numerous future ones.

Space permitting, we could willingly have pursued the

? <c Personal Narrative of the Origin of the Caoutchouc, pr Imlia-Eubber
Manufacture in England.” By Thomas Hancock.

59

PROGRESS : ITS LAW AND CAUSE.

argument in relation to all the subtler results of civilization.
As before we showed that the law of progress to which
the organic and inorganic worlds conform, is also conformed
to by Language, the plastic arts, Music, &c. ; so might we
here show that the cause which we have hitherto found to
determine progress holds in these cases also. Instances
might he given proving how, in Science, an advance of
one division presently advances other divisions — how
Astronomy has been immensely forwarded by discoveries
in Optics, while other optical discoveries have initiated
Microscopic Anatomy, and greatly aided the growth of
Physiology — how Chemistry has indirectly increased our
knowledge of Electricity, Magnetism, Biology, Geology —
how Electricity has reacted on Chemistry and Magnetism,
and has developed our views of Light and Heat. In
Literature the same truth might he exhibited in the
manifold effects of the primitive mystery-play, as origin-
ating the modern drama, which has variously branched; or
in the still multiplying forms of periodical literature which
have descended from the first newspaper, and which have
severally acted and reacted on other forms of literature
and on each other. The influence which a new school of
Painting — as that of the pre-Baffaelites — exercises upon
other schools ; the hints which all kinds of pictorial art are
deriving from Photography; the complex results of new
critical doctrines, as those of Mr. Buskin, might severally be
dwelt upon as displaying the like multiplication of effects.

But we venture to think our case is already made out.
The imperfections of statement which brevity has necessi-
tated, do not, we believe, invalidate the propositions laid
down. The qualifications here and there demanded would
not, if made, affect the inferences. Though, in tracing the
genesis of progress, we have frequently spoken of complex
causes as if they were simple ones ; it still remains true
that such causes are far less complex than their results.
Detailed criticisms do not affect our main position. Endless

60 PROGRESS : IIS LAW AND CAUSE.

facts go to show that every kind of progress is from th©
homogeneous to the heterogeneous ; and that it is so
hecau.se each change is followed by many changes. And
it is significant that where the facts are most accessible and
abundant, there these truths are most manifest.

However, to avoid committing ourselves to more than is
yet proved, we must he content with saying that such are
the law and the cause of all. progress that is known to us.
Should the Nebular Hypothesis ever be established, then
it will become manifest that the Universe at large, like
every organism, was once homogeneous ; that as a whole,
and in every detail, it has unceasingly advanced towards
greater heterogeneity. It will be seen that as in each
event of to-day, so from the beginning, the decomposition
of every expended force into several forces has been
perpetually producing a higher complication; that the
increase of heterogeneity so brought about is still going on
and must continue to go on ; and that thus progress is not
an accident, not a thing within human control, but a
beneficent necessity.

A few words must be added on the ontological bearings
of our argument. Probably not a few will conclude that
here is an attempted solution of the great questions with
which Philosophy in all ages has perplexed itself. Let
none thus deceive themselves. After all that has been
said, the ultimate mystery remains just as it was. T he
explanation of that whic h is e xplicable, does but bring out
into greater clearness the inexplicableness of that which
remai ns behind. Little as it seems to do so, fearless
inquiry tends c ntinually to give a firmer basts to all true
Religion, The timid s ectarian, obliged to abandon one by
one the superstitions beq ueat hed to him, and daily finding
h ia cher ished beliefs more and more shaken, secretly fears
that all things may some day be explained; and has a
corresponding dread of Science: thus evincing the pro-

PROGRESS : ITS LAW AND CAUSE.

61

foundest of all infidelity — the fear lest the truth he bad.
On the other hand, the sincere man of science, content to
follow wherever the evidence leads him, becomes by each
new inquiry more profoundly convinced that the Universe
is an insoluble problem. Alike in the external and the
internal worlds, he sees himself in the midst of ceaseless
changes, of which he can discover neither beginning nor
end. If, tracing back the evolution of things, he allows
himself to entertain the hypothesis that all matter once
existed in a diffused form, he finds it impossible to conceive
how this came to be so; and equally, if he speculates on
the future, he can assign no limit to the grand succession
of phenomena ever unfolding themselves before him.
Similarly, if he looks inward, he perceives that both
terminations of the thread of consciousness are beyond his
grasp : he cannot remember when or how consciousness
commenced, and he cannot examine the consciousness at
any moment existing ; for only a state of consciousness
which is already past can become the object of thought;
and never one which is passing. When, again, he turns
from the succession of phenomena, external or internal, to
their essential nature, he is equally at fault. Though he
may succeed in resolving all properties of objects into
manifestations of force, he is not thereby enabled to con-
ceive what force is ; but finds, on the contrary, that the
more he th nks al rat it, the more he is baffled. Similarly,
though analysis of me nt al actions may finally bring him
down to sensations as the original materials out of which
all thought is woven, he is none the forwarder; for he
cannot in the least comprehend sensation. Inward and
outward things he thus discovers to be alike inscrutable in
their ultimate genesis and nature. He sees that the
Materialist and Spiritualist controversy is a mere war of
words; the disputants being equally absurd- — each believ-
ing he understands that which it. is impossible for any man
to understand. In all directions his investigations even-

62

PROGRESS : ITS LAW AND CAUSE.

tually faring liim face to face with, the unknowable ; and ho
ever more clearly perceives it to be the unknowable. He
learns at once the greatness and the littleness of human
intellect— its power in dealing with all that comes within
the range of experience ; its impotence in dealing with all
that transcends experience. He feels more vividly than
any others can feel, the utter incomprehensibleness of the
simplest fact, considered in itself. He alone truly sees that
absolute knowledge is impossible. He alone knows that
under all things there lies an impenetrable mystery.

TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSIOLOGY.

[Find published in The National Review for October, 1857, under
the title of “ The Ultimate Laws of Physiology ” . The title
« Transcendental Physiology ”, w7»efc ifce editor did not approve,
was restored when the essay teas re-published with others in 1857.]

The title Transcendental Anatomy is used to distinguish
that division of biological science which treats, not of the
structures of individual organisms considered separately,
but of the general principles of structure common to vast
and varied groups of organisms,— the unity of plan dis-
cernible throughout multitudinous species, genera, and
orders, which differ widely in appearance. And here, under
the head of Transcendental Physiology, we purpose putting
together sundry laws of development and function which
hold not of particular kinds or classes of organisms, but of
all organisms : laws, some of which have not, we believe,
been hitherto enunciated.

By way of unobtrusively introducing the general reader
to biological truths of this class, let us begin by noticing
one or two with which he is familiar. Take first, the
relation between the activity of an organ and its growth.
This is a universal relation. It holds, not only of a bone, a
muscle, a nerve, an organ of sense, a mental faculty ; but
of every gland, every viscus, every element of the body. It
is seen, not in man only, but in each animal which affords
us adequate opportunity of tracing it. Always providing
that the performance of function is not so excessive as to
produce disorder, or to exceed the repairing powers either
of the system at large or of the particular agencies hy
which nutriment is brought to the organ, — always providing

64 TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSIOLOGY.

this, it is a law of organized bodies that, other things equal,
development varies as function. On this law are based all
maxims and methods of right education, intellectual, moral,
and physical ; and when statesmen are wise enough to see
it, this law will be found to underlie all right legislation.

Another truth co-extensive with the organic world, is
that of hereditary transmission. It is not, as commonly
supposed, that hereditary transmission is exemplified merely
in re-appearance of the family peculiarities displayed by
immediate or remote progenitors. Nor does the law of
hereditary transmission comprehend only such more general
facts as that modified plants or animals become the parents
of permanent varieties j and that new kinds of potatoes,
new breeds of sheep, new races of men, have been thus
originated. These are but minor exemplifications of the
law. Understood in its entirety, the law is that each plant
or animal produces others of like kind with itself : the
likeness of kind consisting not so much in the repetition of
individual traits as in the assumption of the same general
structure. This truth has been made by daily illustration
so familiar as nearly to have lost its significance. That
wheat produces wheat, — that existing oxen are descended
from ancestral oxen, — that every unfolding i organism
ultimately takes the form of the class, order, genus, and
species from which it sprang ; is a fact which, by force of
repetition, has assumed in our minds the character of a
necessity. It is in this, however, that the law of hereditary
transmission is principally displayed ; the phenomena com-
monly named as exemplifying it being quite subordinate
manifestations. And the law, as thus understood, is
universal. Not forgetting the apparent, but only apparent,
exceptions presented by the strange class of phenomena
known as “ alternate generation/ 1 the truth that like
produces like is common to all types of organisms.

Let us take next a universal physiological law of a less
conspicuous kind. To the ordinary observer, it seems that

TEA'NSC ENDKNTAL PHYSIOLOGY.

65

r

the mnl implication of organisms proceeds in various •ways.
He sees that tile young of the higher animals when "born
resemble tlieir parents ; that birds lay eggs, which they
foster and batch; that fish deposit spawn and leave it.
Among plants, he finds that while in some cases new
individuals grow from seeds only, in other cases they also
grow from tnbers ; that by certain plants layers are sent
out, take root, and develop new individuals ; and that
many plants can be reproduced from cuttings. Further, in
the mould that quickly covers stale food, and the infusoria
that soon swarm in water exposed to air and light, he sees
a mode of generation which, seeming inexplicable, he is apt
to consider “spontaneous.” The reader of popular science
thinks the modes of reproduction still more various. He
learns that whole tribes of creatures multiply by gemmation
—by a development from the body of the parent of buds
which, after unfolding into the parental form, separate and
lead independent lives. Concerning microscopic forms of
both animal and vegetal life, he reads that the ordinary
mode of multiplication is by spontaneous fission — a splitting
up of the original individual into two or more individuals,
which by and by severally repeat the process. Still more
remarkable are the cases in which, as in the Aphis, an egg
gives’ rise to an imperfect female, from which other imper-
fect females are born viviparously, grow, and in their turns
bear other imperfect females ; and so on for eight, ten, or
more generations, until finally, perfect males and females are
viviparously produced. But now under all these, and many
more, modified modes of multiplication, the physiologist finds
complete uniformity. The starting-point, not only of every
higher animal or plant, but of every clan of organisms which
by fission or gemmation have sprung from a single organism,
is always a spore, seed, or ovum. The millions of infusoria
or of aphides which, by sub-division or gemmation, have
proceeded from one individual; the countless plants which
have been successively propagated from one original plant
: ' ' '

jlr

66 TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSIOLOGY.

by cuttings or tubers; are, in common -with the highest
creature, primarily descended from a fertilized germ. And
in all cases — in the humblest alga as in the oak, in the
protozoon as in the mammal — this fertilized germ results
from the union of the contents of two cells. Whether, as
among the lowest forms of life, these two cells are
seemingly identical in nature; or whether, as among
higher forms, they are distinguishable into sperm-cell and
germ-cell ; it remains throughout true that from their
combination results the mass out of which is evolved a new
organism or new series of organisms. That this law is
without exception we are not prepared to say ; for in the
case of the Aphis certain experiments are thought to imply
that under special conditions the descendants of an original
individual may continue multiplying for ever, without
further fecundation. But we know of no case where it
actually is so; for although there are certain plants of
which the seeds have never been seen, it is more probable
that our observations are in fault than that these plants are
exceptions. And until we -find undoubted exceptions, the
above-stated induction must stand. Here, then, we have
another of the truths of Transcendental Physiology: a
truth which, so far as we know, transcends all distinctions
of genus, order, class, kingdom, and applies to every
: living thing.

Yet another generalization of like universality expresses
the process of organic development. To the ordinary
observer there seems no unity in this. No obvious parallel-
ism exists between the unfolding of a plant and the
unfolding of an animal. There is no manifest similarity
between the development of a mammal, which proceeds
without break from its first to its last stage, and that of an
insect, which is divided into strongly-marked stages— -egg,
larva, pupa, imago. Nevertheless it is now an established
fact, that ail organisms are evolved after one general
method. At the outset the germ of every plant or animal

m

TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSIOLOGY.

is relatively homogeneous ; and advance towards maturity
is advance towards greater heterogeneity. Each organized
tiling commences as an almost structureless mass, and
reaches its ultimate complexity hy the establishment of
distinctions upon distinctions, — -by the divergence of tissues
from tissues and organs from organs. Here, then, we have
yet another biological law of transcendent generality.

Having thus recognized the scope of Transcendental
Physiology as presented in its leading truths, we are
prepared for the considerations that are to follow.

And first, returning to the last of the great generaliza-
tions above given, let us inquire more nearly how this change
from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous is carried
on. Usually it is said to result from successive differentia-
tions. This, however, cannot be considered a complete
account of the process. During the evolution of an
organism there occur, not only separations of parts, but
coalescences of parts. There is not only segregation, but
aggregation. The heart, at first a simple pulsating blood-
vessel, by and by twists upon itself and becomes integrated.
The bile-cells constituting the rudimentary liver, do not
merely diverge from the surface of the intestine in which
they at first form a simple layer; but they simultaneously
consolidate into a definite organ. And the gradual con-
centration seen in these and other cases is a part of the
developmental process — a part which, though more or less
recognized by Milne-Edwards and others, does not seem to
have been included as an essential element in it.

This progressive integration, manifest alike when tracing
up the several stages passed through by every embryo,
and when ascending from the lower organic forms to the
higher, may be most conveniently studied under several
heads. Let us consider first what may be called longi -
tud mi a l in teg ra Hon .

The lower Aunulosa — worms, myriapods, &c. — are cha-

68 TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSIOLOGY.

racterized by tlie great numbers of segments of which they
respectively consist, reaching in some cases to several
hundreds; hut as we advance to the higher Annulosa- — cen-
tipedes, crustaceans, insects, spiders, — we find these numbers
greatly reduced, down to twenty-two, thirteen, and even
fewer; and accompanying this there is a shortening or
integration of the whole body, reaching its extreme in
crabs and spiders. Similarly with the development of an
individual crustacean or insect. The thorax of a lobster,
which, in the adult, forms, with the head, one compact box
containing the viscera, is made up by the union of a number
of segments which in the embryo were separable. The
thirteen distinct divisions seen in the body of a caterpillar,
become further integrated in the butterfly : several segments
are consolidated to form the thorax, and the abdominal seg-
ments are more aggregated than they originally were. The
like truth is seen when we pass to the internal organs. In
the lower annulose forms, and in the larvae of the higher
ones, the alimentary canal consists either of a tube that is
uniform from end to end, or else bulges into a succession of
stomachs, one to each segment ; but in the developed forms
there is a single well-defined stomach. In the nervous,
vascular, and respiratory systems a parallel concentration
may be traced. Again, in the development of the Vertebrata
we have sundry examples of longitudinal integration. The
coalescence of several segmental groups of bones to form
the skull is one instance of it. It is further illustrated in
the os coceygis , which results from the fusion of a number of
caudal vertebras. And in the consolidation of the sacral
vertebrae of a bird it is also well exemplified.

That which we may distinguish as transverse integration,
is well illustrated among the Annulosa in the development
of the nervous system. Leaving out those simple forms
which do not present distinct ganglia, it is to be observed
that the lower annulose animals, in common with the larvae
of the higher, are severally characterized by a double

®EJ.SrSCENDE5fTAL PHYSIOLOGY.

69

chain of ganglia running from end to end of the body;
•while in the more advanced animlose animals this double
chain becomes a single chain. Mr. Newport has described
the course of this concentration in insects; and by
Ratlike it has been traced in crustaceans. In the early
stages of the Astacus fluviatilis, or common cray-fish,
there is a pair of separate ganglia to each ring. Of the
fourteen pairs belonging to the head and thorax, the
three pairs in advance of the mouth consolidate into one
mass to form the brain, or cephalic ganglion. Meanwhile
out of the remainder, the first six pairs severally unite
in the median line, while the rest remain more or less
separate. Of these six double ganglia thus formed, the
anterior four coalesce into one mass; the remaining two
coalesce into another mass ; and then these two masses
coalesce into one. Here we see longitudinal and transverse
integration going on simultaneously ; and in the highest crus-
taceans they are both carried still further. The Vartebrata
exhibit this transverse integration in the development of the
generative system. The lowest of the mammalia — the Mono-
tremata — in common with birds, have oviducts which towards
their lower extremities are dilated into cavities severally per-
for ming* in an imperfectway the function of a uterus. "Inthe
Afarsujpialia, thereis a closer approximation of the two lateral
sets of organs on the median line ; for the oviducts converge
towards one another and meet (without coalescing) on the
median line ; so that their uterine dilatations are in contact
with each other, forming a true 'double uterus/ . . . . As we
ascend the series of 'placental 5 mammals, we find the lateral
coalescence becoming gradually more and more complete.

, . . , In many of the Rodentia , the uterus still remains com-
pletely divided into two lateral halves; whilst in others, these
coalesce at their lower portion, forming a rudiment of the true
'body* of the uterus inthe Human subject. This part increases
at the expense of the lateral 'cornua 5 in the higher Herbivora
and Carnivora; but even in the lower Quadrumana, the uterus

70 T RAJS' S CENDENT AL PHYSIOLOGY.

is somewhat cleft at its summit.”* And tliis process of trans-
verse integration, which is still more striking when observed
in. its details, is accompanied by parallel though less important
changes in the opposite sex. Once more ; in the increasing
commissural connexion of the cerebral hemispheres, which,
though separate in the lower vertebrata, become gradually
more united in the higher, we have another instance. And
further ones of a different order, but of like general
implication, are supplied by the vascular system,
c v Now it seems to us that the various kinds of integration
here exemplified, which are. commonly set down as so many
independent phenomena, ought to be generalized, and
included in the formula describing the process of develop-
ment. The fact that in an adult crab, many pairs of
ganglia originally separate have become fused into a single
mass, is a fact only second in significance to the differentia-
tion of its alimentary canal into stomach and intestine. That
in the higher Annul osa, a single heart replaces the string
of rudimentary hearts constituting the dorsal blood-vessel
in the lower Annulets a, (reaching in one species to the
number of one hundred and sixty), is a truth as much
needing to be comprised in the history of evolution, as is
the formation of a respiratory surface by a branched
expansion of the skin. A right conception of the genesis
of a vertebral column, includes not only the differentiations
from which result the chorda dorsalis and the vertebral
segments imbedded in it; but quite as much it includes the
coalescence of numerous vertebral processes with their
respective vertebral bodies. The changes in virtue of
which several things become one, demand recognition
equally with those in virtue of which one thing becomes
several. Evidently, then, the current statement which
ascribes the developmental progress to differentiations
alone, is incomplete. Adequately to express the facts, we

Carpenter’s Principles of Comparative Physiology, pp. 61647.

TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSIOLOGY. 71

must sav that the transition from the homogeneous to
the heterogeneous is carried on by differentiations and
accompanying integrations.

It may not be amiss here to ask — What is the meaning
of these integrations ? The eyiden.ce seems to show that they
are in some way dependent on community of function. The
eight segments which coalesce to make the head of a
centipede, jointly protect the cephalic ganglion, and afford
a solid fulcrum for the jaws, &c. The many bones which
unite to form a vertebral skull have like uses. In the
consolidation of the several pieces which constitute a
mammalian pelvis, and in the anchylosis of from ten to
nineteen vertebrae in the sacrum of a bird, we have kindred
instances of the integration of parts which transfer the
weight of the body to the legs. The more or less extensive
fusion of the tibia with the fibula and the radius with the
ulna in the ungulated mammals, whose habits require
pnly partial rotations of the limbs, is a fact of like
meaning. And all the instances lately given— the concen-
tration of ganglia, the replacement of many pulsating
blood-sacs by fewer and finally by one, the fusion of two,
uteri into a single uterus — have the same implication.
Whether, as in some cases, the integration is merely a
consequence of the growth which eventually brings into
contact adjacent parts performing similar duties ; or
whether, as in other cases, there is an actual approximation
of these parts before their union; or whether, as in yet
other cases, the integration is of that indirect kind which
arises when, out of a number of like organs, one, or a
group, discharges an ever-increasing share of the common
function, and so grows while the rest dwindle and dis-
appear; — the general fact remains the same, that there is ,v
tendency to the unification of parts having similar duties.

The tendency, however, acts under limiting conditions;
and recognition of them will explain some apparent excep-
tions. In the human foetus, as in the lower vertebrata, the

72

TMMC1WBENTAL PHYSIOLOGY.

eyes are placed one on each side of the head. Daring’
evolution they become relatively nearer, and at birth are in
front ; though they are still, in the European infant as in
the adult Mongol, proportionately further apart than they
afterwards become. But this approximation shows no
signs of further increase. Two reasons suggest themselves.
One is that the two eyes have not quite the same function,
since they are directed to slightly-different aspects of
each object looked at,* and, since the resulting binocular
vision has an advantage over monocular vision, there
results a check upon further approach towards identity of
function and unity of structure. The other reason is
that the interposed structures do not admit of any nearer
approach. For the orbits of the eyes to be brought closer
together, would imply a decrease in the olfactory chambers;
and as these are probably not larger than is demanded by
their present functional activity, no decrease can take
place. Again, if we trace up the external organs of smell
through fishes,* reptiles, ungulate mammals and unguicu-
late mammals, to man, we perceive a general tendency to
coalescence in the median line; and on comparing the
savage with the civilized, or the infant with the adult, we
see this approach of the nostrils carried furthest in the
most perfect of the species. But since the septum which
divides them has the function both of an evaporating
surface for the lachrymal secretion, and of a ramifying
surface for a nerve ancillary to that of smell, it does not
disappear entirely : the integration remains incomplete.
These and other like instances do not however militate
against the hypothesis. They merely show that the
tendency is sometimes antagonized by other tendencies.
Bearing in mind which qualification, we may say, that as

* With, the exception, perhaps, of the Myxinoid fishes, in which what is
considered as the nasal orifice is single, and on the median line. But seeing
how unusual is the position of this orifice, it seems questionable whether it
is the true homologue of the nostrils.

TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSIOLOGY.

73

differentiation of parts is connected with difference of
function, so there appears to he a connexion between
integration of parts and sameness of function.

Closely related to the general truth, that the evolution of
all organisms is -carried on by combined differentiations and
integrations, is another general truth, which physiologists
appear not to have recognized. When we look at the
organic world as a whole, we may observe that, on passing
from lower to higher forms, we pass to forms which are not
only characterized by a greater differentiation of parts, but
are at the same time more completely differentiated from
the surrounding medium. This truth may be contemplated
under various aspects.

In the first place it is illustrated in structure. The
advance from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous itself
involves an increasing’ distinction from the inorganic world.
In the lowest Protozoa, as some of the Ehizopods, we have
a homogeneity approaching to that of air, water, or earth ;
and the ascent to organisms of greater and greater com-
plexity of structure, is an ascent to organisms which are
in that respect more strongly contrasted with the relatively
structureless masses in the environment.

In form again we see the same truth. A general cha-
racteristic of inorganic matter is its indefiniteness of form,
and this is also a characteristic of the lower organisms, as
compared with the higher. Speaking generally, plants are
less definite than animals, both in shape and size — admit
of greater modifications from variations of position and
nutrition. Among animals, the Amoeba and its allies are
not only almost structureless, but are amorphous; and the
irregular form is constantly changing. Of the organisms
resulting from the aggregation of amoeba-like creatures,
we find that while some assume a certaindefiniteness of form,
in their compound shells at least, others, as the Sponges,
are irregular. In the Zoophytes and in the Polyzoa, we

74 TCAKSCENBENTAL PHYSIOLOGY*

see compound organisms, most of which have modes of
growth, not more determinate than tliose of plants. But
among the higher animals, we find not only that the mature
shape of each species is quite definite, hut that the indi-
viduals of each species differ very little in size.

A parallel increase of contrast is seen in chemical com-
position, With but few exceptions, and those only
partial ones, the lowest animal and vegetal forms are
inhabitants of the water ; and water is almost their sole
constituent. Dessicated Protophyta and Protozoa shrink
into mere dust ; and among the acalephes we find
but a few grains of solid matter to a pound of water.
The higher aquatic plants, in common with the higher
aquatic animals, possessing as they do much greater
tenacity of substance, also contain a greater propor-
tion of the organic elements ; and so are chemically more
unlike their medium. And when we pass to the superior
classes of organisms — land plants and land animals — we
find that, chemically considered, they have little in common
either with the earth on which they stand or the air which
surrounds them.

In specific gravity } too, we may note the like. The very
simplest forms, in common with the spores and gemmules of
the higher ones, are as nearly as may be of the same specific
gravity as the water in which they float; and though it
cannot be said that among aquatic creatures superior
specific gravity is a standard of general superiority, yet we
may fairly say that the superior orders of them, when
divested of the appliances by which their specific gravity is
regulated, differ more from water in their relative weights
than do the lower. In terrestrial organisms, the contrast
becomes extremely marked. Trees and plants, in common
with insects, reptiles, mammals, birds, are all of a specific
gravity considerably less than the earth and immensely
greater than the air.

We see the law similarly fulfilled in respect of temperature *

TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSIOLOGY.

75 '

Plants generate bat an extremely small quantity of beat,
which is to be detected only by delicate experiments ; and
practically they may be considered as being in this respect
like tbeir environment. Aquatic animals rise very little
above tlie surrounding water in temperature: that of the
invertebrata being mostly less than a degree above it, and
that of fishes not exceeding it by more than two or three
degrees, save in the case of some large red-blooded fishes,
as the tunny, which exceed it by nearly ten degrees.
Among insects, the range is from two to ten degrees above
that of the air : the excess varying according to their
activity. The heat of reptiles is from four to fifteen
degrees more than that of their medium. While mammals
and birds maintain a heat which continues almost unaffected
by external variations, and is often greater than that of the
air by seventy, eighty, ninety, and even a hundred degrees.

Once more, in greater self -mobility a progressive differ-
entiation is traceable. Dead matter is inert : some form of
independent motion is our most general test of life.
Passing over the indefinite border-land between the animal
and vegetable kingdoms, we may roughly class plants as
organisms which, while they exhibit the kind of motion
implied in growth, are not only without locomotive power,
but in nearly all cases are without the power of moving
their parts in relation to one another; and thus are less
differentiated from the inorganic world than animals.
Though in those microscopic Protophyla and Protozoa
inhabiting the water — the spores of algse, the gemmules of
sponges, and the infusoria generally — we see locomotion
produced by ciliary action; yet this locomotion, while
rapid relatively to their sizes, is absolutely slow. Of the
Gcelenierata, a great part are either permanently rooted or
habitually stationary, and so have scarcely any self-mobility
but that implied in the relative movements of parts ; while
the rest, of which the common jelly-fish serves as a sample,
have mostly but little ability to move themselves through

76 TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSIOLOGY,

tlie water. Among the higher aquatic Invertebrate!,,-—
cuttle-fishes and lobsters, for instance, — there is a very
considerable power of locomotion; and the aquatic Verie-
hr at a are, considered as a class, much more active in
their movements than the other inhabitants of the water.
But it is only when we come to air-breathing creatures that
we find the vital characteristic of self-mobility manifested
in the highest degree. Mying insects, mammals, birds,
travel with velocities far exceeding those attained by any
of the lower classes of animals; and so are more strongly
contrasted with their inert environments.

Thus, on contemplating the various grades of organisms
in their ascending order, we find them more and more distin-
guished from their inanimate media in structure, in form ,
in chemical composition, in specific gravity , in temperature, in
self-mobility. It is true that this generalization does not
hold with regularity. Organisms which are in some
respects the most strongly contrasted with the inorganic
world, are in other respects less contrasted than inferior
organisms. As a class, mammals are higher than birds ;
and yet they are of lower temperature, and have smaller
powers of locomotion. The stationary oyster is of higher
organization than the free-swimming medusa ; and the
cold-blooded and less heterogeneous fish is quicker in its
movements than the warm-blooded and more heterogeneous
sloth But the admission that the several aspects under
which this increasing contrast shows itself bear variable
ratios to one another, does not negative the general truth
enunciated. Booking at the facts in the massj it cannot be
denied that the successively higher groups of organisms
are severally characterized, not- only by greater differentia-
tion of parts, but also by greater differentiation from the
surrounding medium in sundry other physical attributes.
It would seem that this peculiarity has some necessary
connexion with superior vital manifestations. One of those
lowly gelatinous forms which are some of them so tran-

TRANSCENDENTAL PHTSIOIOGT.

77

sparent and colourless as to be with difficulty distinguished
from, the water they float in, is not more like its medium in
chemical, mechanical, optical, thermal, and other properties,
than it is in the passivity with which it submits to all the
actions brought to bear on it ; while the mammal does
not more widely differ from inanimate things in these
properties than it does in the activity with which it meets
surrounding changes by compensating changes in itself.
Between these two extremes, we see a tolerably constant
ratio between these two kinds of contrast. In proportion
as an organism is physically like its environment it remains
a passive partaker of the changes going on in its environ-
ment ; while in proportion as it is endowed with powers of
counteracting such changes, it exhibits greater nnlikeness
to its environment.

Thus far we have proceeded inductively, in conformity
with established usage; but it seems to us that much may
be done in this and other departments of biologic inquiry
by pursuing the deductive method. The generalizations at
present constituting the science of physiology, both general
and special, have been reached a posteriori; but certain
fundamental data have now been discovered, starting from
which we may reason our way a priori , not only to some of
the truths that have been ascertained by observation and
experiment, but also to some others. The possibility of
such a priori conclusions will be at once recognized on
considering some familiar cases.

Chemists have shown that a necessary condition to vital
activity in animals is oxidation of certain matters contained
in the body either as components or as waste products.
The oxygen requisite for this oxidation is contained in the
surrounding medium — air or water, as the case may be. If
the organism be minute, mere contact of its external surface
with the oxygenated medium achieves the requisite oxida-
tion ; but if the organism is bulky, and so exposes a surface

78 TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSIOLOGY.

which is small in proportion to its mass, any considerable
oxidation cannot be thus achieved. One of two things is
therefore implied. Either this bulky organism, receiving
no oxygen but that absorbed through its integument, must
possess but little vital activity j or else, if it possesses
much vital activity, there must be some extensive ramified
surface, internal or external, through which adequate
aeration may take place — a respiratory apparatus. That is
to say, lungs, or gills, or branchiae, or their equivalents,
are predicable a priori as possessed by all active creatures
of any size.

Similarly with respect to nutriment. There are entozoa
which, living in the insides of other animals, and being con-
stantly bathed by nutritive fluids, absorb a sufficiency through,
their outer surfaces ; and so have no need of stomachs, and
do not possess them. But all other animals, inhabiting media
that are not in themselves nutritive, but only contain masses
of food here and there, must have appliances by which these
masses of food may be utilized. Evidently mere external
contact of a solid organism with a solid portion of nutriment,
could not result in the absorption of it in any moderate time,
if at all. To effect absorption, there must be both a solvent
or macerating action, and an extended surface fit for
containing and imbibing the dissolved products : there
must he a digestive cavity. Thus, given the ordinary
conditions of animal life, and the possession of stomachs
by all creatures living under these conditions may be de-
ductively known.

Carrying out the train of reasoning still further, we may
infer the existence of a vascular system or something
equivalent to it, in all creatures of any size and activity.
In a comparatively small inert animal, such as the hydra.,
which consists of little more than a sac having a double
wall — an outer layer of cells forming the skin, and an inner
layer forming the digestive and absorbent surface— there is
no need for a special apparatus to diffuse through the body

79

TEANSCEKDENTAL PHYSIOLOGY.

the ailment taken up ; for the body is little more than a
wrapper to the food it encloses. But where the bulk is
considerable, or where the activity is such as to involve
much waste and repair, or where both these characteristics
exist, there is a necessity for a system of blood-vessels.
It is not enough that there be adequately extensive surfaces
for absorption and aeration,* for in the absence of any
means of conveyance, the absorbed elements can be of little
or no use to the organism at large. Evidently there must
be channels of communication. When, as in the Medium,
we find these channels of communication consisting simply
of branched canals opening out of the stomach and
spreading through the disk, we may know, a priori, that
such, creatures are comparatively inactive ; seeing that the
nutritive liquid thus partially distributed throughout their
bodies is crude and dilute, and that there is no efficient
appliance for keeping it in motion. Conversely, when we
meet with a creature of considerable size which displays
much vivacity, we may know, a priori, that it must have
an apparatus for the unceasing supply of concentrated
nutriment, and of oxygen, to every organ — a pulsating
vascular system.

It is manifest, then, that setting out from certain known
fundamental conditions to vital activity, we may deduce
from them sundry of the chief characteristics of organized
bodies. Doubtless these known, fundamental conditions
have been inductively established. But what we wish to
show is that, given these inductively-established primary
facts in physiology, we may with safety draw certain
general deductions from them. And, indeed, the legitimacy
of such deductions, though not formally acknowledged, is
practically recognized in the convictions of every physio-
logist, as may be readily proved. Thus, were a physiologist
to find a creature exhibiting complex and variously
co-ordinated movements, and yet having no nervous system ;
he would be less astonished at the breach of his empirical

80

TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSIOLOGY.

generalization that all such creatures have nervous systems,
than at the disproof of his unconscious deduction that all
creatures exhibiting complex and variously co-ordinated
movements must have an tf internuncial }> apparatus by
which the co-ordination may be effected. Or were he to
find a creature having blood rapidly circulated and rapidly
aerated, but yet showing a low temperature, the proof so
afforded that active change of matter is not, as ho had
inferred from chemical data, the cause of animal heat,
would stagger him more than would the exception to a
constantly-observed relation. Clearly, then, the a ‘priori
method already plays a part in physiological reasoning. If
not ostensibly employed as a means of reaching new truths,
it is at least privately appealed to for coufirmation of truths
reached a posteriori .

But the illustrations above given go far to show, that it
may to a considerable extent be safely used as an inde-
pendent instrument of research. The necessities for a
nutritive system, a respiratory system, and a vascular
system, in all animals of size and vivacity, seem to us
legitimately inferable from the conditions to continued
vital activity. Given the physical and chemical data, and
these structural peculiarities may be deduced with as much
certainty as may the hollowness of an iron ball from its
power of floating in water.

It is not, of course, asserted that the more special
physiological truths can be deductively reached. The
argument by no means implies this. Legitimate deduction
presupposes adequate data; and in respect to the special
phenomena of organic growth, structure, and function,
adequate data are unattainable, and will probably ever
remain so. It is only in the case of the more general
physiological truths, such as those above instanced, where
we have something like adequate data, that deductive
reasoning becomes possible.

And here is reached the stage to which the foregoing

TEAHSCEHEEXTAL PHYSIOLOGY.

81

considerations are introductory. We propose now to stow
that there are certain still more general attributes of
organized bodies, which are deducible from certain still
more general attributes of tilings.

In ant essay on "Progress: its Law and Cause/! else-
where published,* we have endeavoured to sliow tliat the
transformation of the homogeneous into the heterogeneous,
in which all progress, organic or other, essentially consists,
is consequent on the production of many effects by one
cause— many changes by one force. Haying pointed out
that this is a law of all things, we proceeded to show
deductively that the multiform evolutions of the homo-
geneous into the heterogeneous— astronomic, geologic,
ethnologic, social, &c., — were explicable as consequences.
And though in the case of organic evolution, lack of data
disabled us from specifically tracing out the progressive
complication as due to the multiplication of effects ; yet, we
found sundry indirect evidences that it was so. Now in so
far as this conclusion/that organic evolution results from
the decomposition of each expended force into several forces,
was inferred from the general law previously pointed out,
it was an example of deductive physiology. The particular
■was concluded from the universal.

We here propose in the first place to show, that there is
another general truth closely connected with the above ;
and in common with it underlying explanations of all
progress, and therefore the progress of organisms — a truth
which may indeed be considered as taking precedence of it
in respect of time, if not in respect of generality. This
truth is, that the condition of homogeneity is a condition of
unstable equilibrium.

The phrase unstable equilibrium is one used in mechanics

* In the Westminster Eeview for April, 1857; and now reprinted in
ibis volume.

82 TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSIOLOGY.

to express a balance of forces of such kind, tliat tkc inter-
ference of any further force, however minute, will destroy
the arrangement previously existing, and bring about a
different arrangement. 'Thus, a stick poised on its lower
end is in unstable equilibrium : however exactly it may be
placed in a perpendicular position, as soon as it is left to
itself it begins, at first imperceptibly and then visibly, to
lean on one side, and with increasing rapidity falls into
another position. Conversely, a stick suspended from its
upper end is in stable equilibrium : however much disturbed,
it will return to the same position. Our meaning is, then,
that the state of homogeneity, like the state of the stick
poised on its lower end, is one that cannot be maintained ;
and that hence results the first step in its gravitation
towards the heterogeneous. Let us take a few illustrations.

Of mechanical ones the most familiar is that of the
scales. If accurately made and not clogged by dirt or rust,
a pair of scales cannot be perfectly balanced : eventually
one scale will descend and tlie other ascend — they will
assume a heterogeneous relation. Again, if we sprinkle
over the surface of a liquid a number of equal-sized
particles, having an attraction for one another, they will,
no matter how uniformly distributed, by and by concentrate
irregularly into groups. Were it possible to bring a mass
of water into a state of perfect homogeneity— -a state of
complete quiescence, and exactly equal density throughout
— yet the radiation of heat from neighbouring bodies, by
affecting differently its different parts, would soon produce
inequalities of density and consequent currents ; and would
so render it to that extent heterogeneous. Take a piece of
red-hot matter, and however evenly heated it may at first be,
it will quickly cease to be so : the exterior, cooling faster than
the interior, will become different in temperature from it.
And the lapse into heterogeneity of temperature, so obvious
in this extreme case, is ever taking place more or less in all
cases. The actions of chemical forces supply other illus-

TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSIOLOGY. 83

trations. Expose a fragment of metal to air or water, and
in course of time it will be coated with a film of oxide,
carbonate, or other compound : its outer parts will become
unlike it's inner parts. Thus, every homogeneous aggregate
of matter tends to lose its balance in some way or other —
either mechanically, chemically, thermally or electrically ;
and the rapidity with which it lapses into a non-homo-
geneous state is simply a question of time and circumstances.
Social bodies illustrate the law with like constancy. Endow
the members of a community with equal properties,
positions, powers, and they will forthwith begin to slide
into inequalities. Be it in a representative assembly, a
railway board, or a private partnership, the homogeneity,
though it may continue in name, inevitably disappears
in reality.

The instability thus variously illustrated becomes still
more manifest if we consider its rationale. It is consequent
on the fact that the several parts of any homogeneous mass
are necessarily exposed to different forces — forces which
differ either in their kinds or amounts; and being exposed
to different forces they are of necessity differently modified.
The relations of outside and inside, and of comparative
nearness to neighbouring sources of influence, imply the
reception of influences which are unlike in quantity or
quality or both ; and it folbnvs that unlike changes will be
wrought in the parts dissimilarly acted upon. The unstable
equilibrium of any homogeneous aggregate can thus be
shown both inductively and deductively.

And now let us consider the bearing of this general
truth on the evolution of organisms. The germ of a plant or
animal is one of these homogeneous aggregates— -relatively
homogeneous if not absolutely so — whose equilibrium is
unstable. But it has not simply the ordinary instability of
homogeneous aggregates : it has something more. For it
consists of units which are themselves specially characterized
by instability. The constituent molecules of organic matter

84 TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSIOLOGY.

are distinguished by the feebleness of tlie affinities which
bold their component elements together. They are extremely
sensitive to heat, light, electricity, and the chemical actions
of foreign elements; that is, they are peculiarly liable to
be modified by disturbing forces. Hence then it follows, a
priori , that a homogeneous aggregate of these unstable
molecules will have an excessive tendency to lose its
equilibrium. It will have a quite special liability to lapse
into a non-homogeneons state. It will rapidly gravitate
towards heretogeneity.

Moreover, the process must repeat itself in each of the
subordinate groups of organic units which are differentiated
by the modifying forces. Each of these subordinate groups,
like the original group, must gradually, in obedience to the
influences acting on it, lose its balance of parts — must
pass from a uniform into a multiform state. And so
on continuously.

Thus, starting from the general laws of things, and the
known chemical attributes of organic matter, we may
conclude deductively that the homogeneous germs of
organisms have a peculiar proclivity towards a non-homo-
geneous state; which may be either the state we call
decomposition, or the state we call organization.

At present we have reached a conclusion only of the
most general nature. We merely learn that some kind of
heterogeneity is inevitable ; but as yet there is nothing to
tell us what kind. Besides that orderly heterogeneity
which distinguishes organisms, there is the disorderly or
chaotic heterogeneity, into which a loose mass of inorganic
matter lapses; and at present no reason has been given
why the homogeneous germ of a plant or animal should not
lapse into the disorderly instead of the orderly hetero-
geneity. But by pursuing still further the line of argument
hitherto followed we shall find a reason.

M e have seen that the instability of homogeneous

TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSIOLOGY.

85

; aggregates in general, and of organic ones in particular, is
consequent on the various ways and degrees in which their
constituent parts are exposed to the disturbing forces
brought to bear on them : their parts are differently acted
upon, and therefore become different. Manifestly, then, a
rationale of the special changes which a germ undergoes,
must be sought in the particular relations which its several
parts bear to each other and to their environment. How-
ever it may be masked, we may suspect the fundamental
principle of organization to be, that the many like units
forming a germ acquire those kinds and degrees of
unlikeness which their respective positions entail.

Take a mass of unorganized but organizable matter —
either the body of one of the lowest living forms, or the
germ of one of the higher. Consider its circumstances. It
is immersed in water or air ; or it is contained within a
parent organism. Wherever placed, however, its outer
and inner parts stand differently related to surrounding
existences — nutriment, oxygen, and the various stimuli.
But this is not all. Whether it lies quiescent at the bottom
of the water, whether it moves through the water preserving
some definite attitude, or whether it is in the inside of an
adult ; it equally results that certain parts of its surface
are more directly exposed to surrounding agencies than
other parts — in some cases more exposed to light, heat, or
oxygen, and in others to the maternal tissues and their
contents. The destruction of its original equilibrium is
therefore certain. It may take place in one of two ways.
Either the disturbing forces may be such as to overbalance
the affinities of the organic elements, in .which case there
results that chaotic heterogeneity known as decomposition;
or, as is ordinarily the case, such changes are induced as
do not destroy the organic compounds, but only modify
them: the parts most exposed to the modifying forces
being most modified. Hence result those first differentiations
which constitute incipient organization. From the point

TEAKSCENDENTAL PHYSIOLOGY,

of view thus reached, suppose we look at a few cases :
neglecting for the present all consideration of the tendency
to assume the inherited type.

Hot© first what appear to he exceptions, as the Amoeba.
In this creature and its allies, the . substance of the jelly-
like body remains throughout life unorganized— undergoes
no permanent differentiations. But this fact, which seems
directly opposed to our inference, is really one of the most
significant evidences of its truth. For what is the peculiarity
of the Bhizopods, exemplified by the Amoeba ? They undergo
perpetual and irregular changes of shape— they show no
persistent relations of parts. What lately formed a portion
of the interior is now protruded, and, as a temporary limb,
is attached to some object it happens to touch. What is
now a part of the surface will presently be drawn, along
with the atom of nutriment sticking to it, into the centre
of the mass. Thus there is an unceasing interchange of
places, and the relations of inner and outer have no
settled existence. But by the hypothesis, it is only in
virtue of their unlike positions with respect to modifying
forces, that the originally-like units of a living mass become
unlike. We must not therefore expect any established
differentiation of parts in creatures which exhibit no
established differences of position in their parts.

This negative evidence is borne out by abundant positive
evidence. When we turn from these ever-changing specks
of living jelly to organisms having unchanging distributions
of substance, we find differences of tissue corresponding
to differences of relative position. In all the higher
'Protozoa, as also in the Protophyta, we meet with a funda-
mental differentiation. Into cell-membrane and cell-contents,
answering to that fundamental contrast of conditions
implied by the words outside and inside. And on passing
from what are roughly classed as unicellular organisms to
the lowest of those which consist of aggregated cells, we
equally observe the connexion between structural differences

TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSIOLOGY.

87

and differences of circumstance. In the sponge, permeated
throughout by currents of sea-water, the absence of definite
organization corresponds with the absence of definite
unlikeness of conditions. In the Thalassicolla of Professor
Huxley— -a transparent, colourless body, found floating
passively at the surface of the sea, and consisting essentially
of “a mass of cells united by jelly”— there is displayed
a rude structure obviously subordinated to the primary
relations of centre and surface: in all of its many and
important varieties, the parts exhibit a more or less concen-
tric arrangement.

After this primary modification, by which the outer
tissues are differentiated from the inner, the next in order
of constancy and importance is that by which some part of
the outer tissues is differentiated from the rest; and this
corresponds with the almost universal fact that some part
of the outer tissues is more directly exposed to certain
environing influences than the rest. Here, as before, the
apparent exceptions are extremely significant. Some of
the lowest vegetable organisms, as tbe S&matococci and
Protococci, evenly imbedded in a mass of mucus, or dis-
persed through the Arctic snow, display no differentiations
of surface : the several parts of the surface being subjected
to no definite contrasts of conditions. The Thalassicolla
above mentioned, unfixed, and rolled about by the waves,
presents all its sides successively to the same agencies; and
all its sides are alike. A ciliated sphere like the Volvo ®
has no parts of its periphery unlike other parts ; and it is
not to be expected that it should have; seeing that as it
revolves in all directions, it does not, in traversing the
water, permanently expose any part to special conditions.
But when we come to creatures that are either fixed, or
while moving, severally preserve a definite attitude, we no
longer find uniformity of surface. The gemmule of a
Zoophyte, which during its locomotive stage is distinguish-
able only into outer and inner tissues, no sooner takes root

88 TEAS S C35NDENTAL PHYSIOLOGY.

than its upper end begins to assume a different structure
from its lower. The free-swimming embryo of ail aquatic
annelid, being ovate and not ciliated all over, moves with
cue end foremost ; and its differentiations proceed in
conformity with this contrast of circumstances.

The principle thus displayed in the humbler forms of life,
is traceable during the development of the higher ; though
being here soon masked by the assumption of the hereditary
type, it cannot be traced far. Thus the “ mulberry-mass ”
into which a fertilized ovum of a vertebrate animal first
resolves itself, soon begins to exhibit a difference between
the outer and inner parts answering to the difference of
circumstances. The peripheral cells, after reaching a more
complete development than the central ones, coalesce into
a membrane enclosing the rest; and then the cells lying
next to these outer ones become aggregated with them, and
increase the thickness of the germinal membrane, while the
central cells liquefy. Again, one part of the germinal
membrane presently becomes distinguishable as the
germinal spot; and without asserting that the cause of
this is to be found in the unlike relations which the
respective parts of the germinal membrane bear to envi-
roning influences, it is clear that we have in these unlike
relations an element of disturbance tending to destroy the
original homogeneity of the germinal membrane. Further,
the germinal membrane by and by divides into two layers,
internal and external; the one in contact with the liquefied
interior part or yelk, the other exposed to the surrounding
fluids : this contrast of circumstances being in obvious
correspondence with the contrast of structures which
follows it. Once more, the subsequent appearance of the
vascular layer between these mucous and serous layers, as
they have been named, admits of a like interpretation.
And in this and the various complications which now begin
to show themselves, we may see coming into play that
general law of the multiplication of effects flowing from one

TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSIOLOGY. 89

cause, to which the increase of heterogeneity was else-
where ascribed. 5 *-'

Confining our remarks, as we do, to the most general facts
of development, we think that some light is thus thrown on
them. That the unstable equilibrium of a homogeneous
germ must be destroyed by the unlike exposure of its several
units to surrounding influences, is an a priori conclusion.
And it seems also to be an a priori conclusion, that the
several units thus differently acted upon, must either be
decomposed, or must undergo such modifications of nature
as may enable them to live in the respective circumstances
they are thrown into : in other words — they must either die
or become adapted to their conditions. Indeed, we might
infer as much without going through the foregoing train of
reasoning. The superficial organic units (be they the outer
cells of a t( mulberry-mass,” or be they the outer molecules
of an individual cell) must assume the function which their
position necessitates ; and assuming this function, must
acquire such character as performance of it involves. The
layer of organic units lying in contact with the yelk must
be those through which the yelk is absorbed; and so must;
be adapted to the absorbent office. On this condition only
does the process of organization appear possible. "We
might almost say that just as some race of animals, which
multiplies and spreads into divers regions of the earth,
becomes differentiated into several races through the
adaptation of each to its conditions of life; so, the originally
homogeneous population of cells arising in a fertilized
germ-cell, becomes divided into several populations of
cells that grow unlike in virtue of the unlikeness of
their circumstances.

Moreover, it is to be remarked in further proof of our
position, that it finds its clearest and most abundant
illustrations where the conditions of the case are the simplest

m

IJRANSCEKBENTAI. PHYSIOLOGY.

and most- general — where the phenomena are the least
involved: we mean in the production of individual cells.
The structures which presently arise round nuclei in a
blastema, and which have in some way been determined by
those nuclei as centres of influence, evidently conform to
the law; for the parts of the blastema in contact with the
nuclei are differently conditioned from the parts not in
contact with them. Again, the formation of a membrane
round each of the masses of granules into which the
endoehrome of an alga-cell breaks up, is an instance off
analogous kind. And should the recently-asserted fact
that cells may arise round vacuoles in a mass of organizable
substance, be confirmed, another good example will bo
furnished; for such portions of substance as bound these
vacant spaces are subject to influences unlike those to which
other portions of the substance are subject. If then we
can most clearly trace this law of modification in these
primordial processes, as well as in those more complex but
analogous ones exhibited in the early changes off an
ovum, we have strong reason for thinking that the law
is fundamental.

But, as already more than once hinted, this principle,
understood in the simple form here presented, supplies no
key to the detailed phenomena of organic development. It
fails entirely to explain generic and specific peculiarities;
and leaves us equally in the dark respecting those more
important distinctions by which families and orders are
marked out. Why two ova, similarly exposed in the same
pool, should become the one a fish, and the other a reptile,
it cannot tell us. That from two different eggs placed
under the same hen, should respectively come forth a
duckling and a chicken, is a fact not to be accounted
for on the hypothesis above developed. Here we are
obliged to fall back upon the unexplained principle
of hereditary transmission. The capacity possessed by an
unorganized germ of unfolding into a complex adult which

TEAXSCENBENTAL PHYSIOLOGY.

01 .

repeats ancestral traits in minute details, and that even
when it- lias "been placed in conditions unlike those of its
ancestors, is a capacity impossible for us to understand.
That a microscopic portion of seemingly structureless matter
should embody an influence of such, kind, that the resulting
man will in fifty years after become gouty or insane, is a
truth which would be incredible were it not daily illustrated.
But though the manner in which hereditary likeness, in all
its complications, is conveyed, is a mystery passing com-
prehension, it is quite conceivable that it is conveyed in
subordination to the law of adaptation above explained
and we are not without reasons for thinking, that it is so.
Various facts show that ..acquired peculiarities resulting
from the adaptation of constitution to conditions, are trans-
missible to offspring. Such acquired peculiarities consist
of differences of structure or composition in one or more of
the tissues. That is to say, of the aggregate of similar
organic units composing a germ, the group going to the
formation of a particular tissue, will take on the special
character which the adaptation of that tissue to new cir-
cumstances had produced in the parents. We know this
to be a general law of organic modifications. Further, it
is the only law of organic modifications of which we have
any evidence.* It is not- impossible then that it is the
universal law ; comprehending not simply those minor
modifications which offspring inherit from recent ancestry,
but comprehending also those larger modifications dis-
tinctive of species, genus, order, class, which they inherit
from antecedent races of organisms. And thus it may be
that the law of adaptation is the sole law; presiding not
only over the differentiation of any race of organisms into
several races, but also over the differentiation of the race
of organic units composing a germ, into the many races of
organic units composing an adult. So understood, the

* This was written before the publication of the Origin of Species. I
leave it standing because it shows the stage of thought then arrived at.

92

TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSIOLOGY.

process gone through by every unfolding organism will
consist, partly in the direct adaptation of its elements to
their several circumstances, and partly in the assumption
of characters resulting from analogous adaptations of the
elements of all ancestral organisms.

But our argument does not commit us to any such far-
reaching speculation as this ; which we introduce simply
as suggested by it, not involved. All we are here con-
cerned to show, is, that the deductive method aids us in
interpreting some of the more general phenomena of de-
velopment. That all homogeneous aggregates are in
unstable equilibrium is a universal truth, from which is
dedacible the instability of every organic germ. From the
known sensitiveness of organic compounds to chemical,
thermal, and other disturbing forces, we further infer the
unusual instability of every organic germ — a proneness far
beyond that of other homogeneous aggregates to lapse into
a heterogeneous state. By the same line of reasoning we
are led to the additional inference, that the first divisions
into which a germ resolves itself, being severally in, a state
of unstable equilibrium, are similarly prone to undergo
further changes; and so on continuously. Moreover, we
have found it to be equally an a priori conclusion, that as,
in all other cases, the loss of homogeneity is due to the
different degrees and kinds of force brought to bear on
the different parts ; so, in this case too, difference of cir-
cumstances is the primary cause of differentiation. Add
to which, that as the several changes undergone by the
respective parts thus, diversely acted upon, are changes
which do not destroy their vital activity, they must be
changes which bring that vital activity into subordination
to the incident forces — they must be adaptations ; and the
like must be in some sense true of all the subsequent
changes. Thus by deductive reasoning we get some
insight into the method of organization. However unable
we are, aud probably ever shall be, to comprehend the

TEASSC ENHENTAL PHYSIOLOGY.

m

way in which a germ is made to take on tlie special form
of its race, wo may yet comprehend the general principles
wliicli regulate its first modifications; and, remembering
the unity of plan so conspicuous throughout nature, we
may suspect that these principles are in some way concerned
in succeeding modifications.

A controversy now going on among zoologists, opens yet
another field for the application of the deductive method.
We believe that ibe question whether there does or does
not exist a necessary correlation among the several parts of
an organism is determinable a priori*

Cuvier, who first asserted this necessary correlation,
professed to base his restorations of extinct animals upon
it. Geoffroy St. Hilaire and De Blainville, from different
points of view, contested Cuvier’s hypothesis; and the
discussion, which has much interest as bearing on paleon-
tology, has been recently revived under a somewhat
modified form : Professors Hnxley and Owen being re-
spectively the assailant and defender of the hypothesis.

Cuvier says — ft Comparative anatomy possesses a principle
whose just development is sufficient to dissipate all
difficulties; it is that of the correlation of forms in
organized beings, by . means of which every kind of
organized being might, strictly speaking, be recognized by
a fragment of any of its parts. Every organized being
constitutes a whole, a single and complete system, whose
parts mutually correspond and concur by their reciprocal
reaction to the same definite end. None of these parts can
be changed without affecting the others ; and consequently
each taken separately, indicates and gives all the rest.”
He then gives illustrations : arguing that the carnivorous
form of tooth necessitating a certain action of the jaw,
implies a particular form in its condyles ; implies also
limbs fit for seizing and holding prey j therefore implies
claws, a certain structure of the leg-bones, a certain form

94

TK ANSCENDEHTAL PHYSIOLOGY.

of shoulder-blade. Summing up lie says, that ff the claw,
the scapula, the condyle, the femur, and all the other
bones, taken separately, will give the tooth or one another;
and by commencing with any one, he who had a rational
conception of the laws of the organic economy, could
reconstruct the whole animal.”

It will be seen that the method of restoration here con-
tended for, is based on the alleged physiological necessity
of the connexion between these several peculiarities. The
argument used is, not that a scapula of a certain shape
may be recognized as having belonged to a carnivorous
mammal because we always find that carnivorous mammals
do possess such scapulas ; but the argument is that they
must possess them, because carnivorous habits would be
impossible without them. And in the above quotation
Cuvier asserts that the necessary correlation which he
considers so : obvious in these cases, exists throughout the
system: admitting, however, that in consequence of our
limited knowledge of physiology we are unable in many
cases to trace this necessary correlation, and are obliged to
base our conclusions upon observe dcoexistences, of which we
do not understand the reason, but which we find invariable.

How Professor Huxley has recently shown that, in the
first place, this empirical method, which Cuvier introduces
as quite subordinate, and to be used only in aid of the
rational method, is really the method which Cuvier
habitually employed — the so-called rational method re-
maining practically a dead letter; and, in the second
place, he has shown that Cuvier himself has in several
places so far admitted the inapplicability of the rational
method, as virtually to surrender it as a method. But
; more than this. Professor Huxley contends that the alleged
necessary correlation is not true. Quite admitting the
physiological dependence of parts on each other, ho denies
that it is a dependence of a kind which could not be other-
wise. “ Thus the teeth of a Hon and the stomach of the

TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSIOLOGY.

Si»:

animal are in sncli relation that t]h.e one is fitted to digest
the food which the other can tear, they are physio™
logically correlated; but we have no reason for affirming
this to be a necessary physiological correlation, in the
sense that no other could equally fit its possessor for living
on recent flesh. The number and form of the teeth might
have been qnite different from that which we know them
to be, and the construction of the stomach might have
been greatly altered ; and yet the functions of these organs
might have been equally well performed.”

Thus much is needful to give an idea of the controversy.
It is not here our purpose to go more at length into the
evidence cited on either side. We simply wish to show
that the question may be settled deductively. Before
going on to do this, however, let us briefly notice two
collateral points.

In his defence of the Cuvierian doctrine, Professor Owen
avails himself of the odium theologicum. He attributes to
his opponents “ the insinuation and masked advocacy of the
doctrine subversive of a recognition of the Higher Mind.”
How, saying nothing about the questionable propriety of
thus prejudging an issue in science, we think this is an
unfortunate accusation. What is there in the hypothesis
of necessary, as distinguished from actual, correlation of
parts, which is particularly in harmony with Theism ?
Maintenance of the necessity , whether of sequences or of
coexistences, is commonly thought rather a derogation from
divine power than otherwise. Cuvier says — “ Hone of these
parts can be changed without affecting the others; and
consequently, each taken separately, indicates and gives all
the rest.” That is to say, in the nature of things the
correlation could not have been otherwise. On the other
hand, Professor Huxley says we have no warrant for
asserting that the correlation could not have been otherwise;
but have not a little reason for thinking that the same
physiological ends might have been differently achieved.

98 TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSIOLOGY.

The one doctrine limits tiie possibilities of creation; the
other denies the implied limit. Which, then, is most open
to irlie charge of covert Atheism ?

On the other point we lean to the opinion of Professor
Owen. We agree with him in thinking that where a
rational correlation (in the highest sense of the term) can
be made out, it affords a better basis for deduction than
an empirical correlation ascertained only by accumulated
observations. Premising that by rational correlation is not
meant one in which we can trace, or think we can trace, a
design, but one of which the negation is inconceivable (and
this is the species of correlation which Cuvier’s principle
implies) ; then we. hold that our knowledge of the correlation
is of a more certain kind than where it is simply inductive.
We think that Professor Huxley, in his anxiety to avoid
the error of making Thought the measure of Tilings, does
not sufficiently bear in mind the fact, that as our notion of
necessity is determined by some absolute uniformity
pervading all orders of our experiences, it follows that an
organic correlation which cannot be conceived otherwise, is
guaranteed by a much wider induction than one ascertained
only by the observation of organisms. But the truth is,
that there ar©. relatively few organic correlations of which
the negation is inconceivable. If we find the skull,
vertebrae, ribs, and phalanges of some quadruped as large
as an elephant; we may indeed be certain that the legs of
this quadruped were of considerable size — much larger
than those of a rat; and our reason for conceiving this
correlation as necessary, is, that it is based, not only upon
our experiences of moving organisms, but upon all our
mechanical experiences relative to masses and their supports.
But even were there many physiological correlations really
of this order, which there are not, there would be danger in
pursuing this line of reasoning, in consequence of the
liability to include within the class of truly necessary
correlations, those which are not such. For instance, there

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97

would seem to be a- necessary correlation between tlie eye
and tlie surface of the body : light being needful for vision,
it might be supposed that every eye must bo external.
Nevertheless it is a fact that there are creatures, as the
GirrMpcedia, having eyes (not very efficient ones, it may
be) deeply imbedded within the body. Again, a necessary
correlation might be assumed between the dimensions of tlx©
mammalian uterus and those of the pelvis. It would appear
impossible that in any species there should exist a well-
developed uterus containing a full-sized foetus, and yet
that the arch of the pelvis should be too small to allow
the foetus to pass. And were the only mammal having a
very small pelvic aiAh, a fossil one, it would have been
inferred, on the Cuvierian method, that the foetus must
have been born in a rudimentary state ; and that the uterus
must have been proportionally small. But there happens
to be an extant mammal having an undeveloped pelvis—
the mole— which presents us with a fact that saves us from
this erroneous inference. The young of the mole are not
born through the pelvic arch at all; but in front of it I
Thus, granting that some quite direct physiological correla-
tions may be necessary, we see that there is great risk of
including among them some which are not.

With regard to the great mass of the correlations,
however, including all the indirect ones. Professor Huxley
seems to us warranted in denying that they are necessary ;
and we now propose to show deductively the truth of his
thesis. Let us begin with an analogy.

Whoever has been through an extensive iron- works, has
seen a gigantic pair of shears worked by machinery, and
used for cutting in two, bars of iron that are from time to
time thrust between its blades. Supposing these blades to
be the only visible parts of the apparatus, anyone observing
their movements (or rather the movement of one, for the
other is commonly fixed), will see from tlie manner in
which the, angle increases and decreases, and from the

98

TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSIOLOGY.

curve described by the moving. extremity, that there must
be some centre of motion — either a pivot or an external
box equivalent to it. This may be regarded as a necessary
correlation. Moreover, be might infer that beyond the
centre of motion the moving blade was produced into a
lever, to which the power was applied ; but as another
arrangement is just possible, this could not be called
anything more than a highly probable correlation. If
now he went a step further, and asked how the reciprocal
movement was given to the lever, he would perhaps
conclude that it was given by a crank. But if he knew
anything of mechanics, he would know that it might
possibly be given by an eccentric. Or again, lie would
know that the effect could be achieved by a cam. That is
to say, he would see that there was no necessary correlation
between the shears and the remoter parts of the apparatus.
Take another case. The plate of a printing-press; is
required to move up and down to the extent of an inch or
so; and it must exert its greatest pressure when it reaches
the extreme of its downward movement. If now anyone
will look over the stock of a printing-press maker, he will
see half a dozen different mechanical arrangements by
which these ends are achieved; and a machinist would tell
Mm that as many more might readily be invented. If,
then, there is no necessary correlation between the
special parts of a machine, still less is there between
those of an organism.

From a converse point of view the same truth is mani-
fest. Bearing in mind the above analogy, it will be
foreseen that an alteration in one part of an organism will
not necessarily entail some one specific set of alterations in
the other parts. Cuvier says, “ None of these parts can be
changed without affecting the others; and consequently,
each taken separately, indicates and gives all the rest.”
The first of these propositions may pass, but the second,
which it is alleged follows from it, is not true; for it

tbAnscishdental physiology.

99

implies that {C all the rest” can be severally affected in
only one way and degree, whereas they can he affected in
many ways and degrees. To show this, we must again
have recourse to a mechanical analogy.

If you set a brick on end and thrust it over, you can
predict with certainty in what direction it will fall, and
what attitude it will assume. If, again setting it up, you
put another on the top of it, you can no longer foresee with
accuracy the results of an overthrow y and on repeating the
experiment, no matter how much care is taken to place the
bricks in the same positions, and to apply the same degree
of force in the same direction, the effects will on no two
occasions be exactly alike. And in proportion as the
aggregation is complicated hy the addition of new and
unlike parts, will the results of any disturbance become
more varied and incalculable. The like truth is curiously
illustrated by locomotive engines. It is a fact familiar to
mechanical engineers and engine-drivers, that out of a
number of engines built as accurately as possible to the
same pattern, no two will act in just the same manner.
Each will have its peculiarities. The play of actions and
reactions will so far differ, that under like conditions each
will behave in a somewhat different way; and every driver
has to learn the idiosyncrasies of his own engine before he
can work it to the greatest advantage. In organisms
themselves this indefiniteness of mechanical reaction is
clearly traceable. Two boys throwing stones will always
differ more or less in their attitudes, as will two billiard-
players. The familiar fact that each individual has a
characteristic gait, illustrates the point still better. The
rhythmical motion of the leg is simple, and on the Cuvierian
hypothesis, should react on the body in some uniform way.
But in consequence of those slight differences of structure
which consist with identity of species, no two individuals
make exactly similar movements either of the trunk or the

100

transcendental physiology.

arms. There is always a peculiarity recognizable by
their friends.

"When we pass to disturbing forces of a non-mechanical
kind, the same truth becomes still more conspicuous. Expose
several persons to a drenching storm ; and while one will
subsequently feel no appreciable inconvenience, another
will have a cough, another a catarrh, another an attack of
diarrhoea., another a fit of rheumatism. Yaccinate several
children of the same age with the same quantity of virus,
applied to the same part, and the symptoms will not be
quite alike in any of them, either in kind or intensity; and.
in some cases the differences will be extreme. The quantity
of alcohol which will send one man to sleep, will render
another unusually brilliant — will make this maudlin, and
that irritable. Opium will produce either drowsiness or
wakefulness : so will tobacco.

Now in all these cases — mechanical and other — some force
is brought to bear primarily on one part of an organism,
and secondarily on the rest ; and, according to the doctrine
of Cuvier, the rest ought to be affected in a specific way.
We find this to be by no means the case. The original
change produced in one part does not stand in any necessary
correlation with every one of the changes produced in the
other parts ; nor do these stand in any necessary correlation
with one another. The functional alteration which the
disturbing force causes in the organ directly acted upon,
does not involve some particular set of functional alterations
in the other organs ; but will be followed by some one
out of various sets. And it is a manifest corollary, that any
structural alteration which may eventually be produced in
the one organ, will not be accompanied by some particular
set of structural alterations in the other organs. There will
be no necessary correlation of forms.

Thus Paleontology must depend upon the empirical
method. A fossil species that was obliged to change its

TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSIOLOGY,

101

food or habits of life, did not of necessity undergo the
particular set of modifications exhibited ; but, under some
slight change of predisposing causes— as of season or
latitude— might have undergone some other set of
modifications : the determining circumstance being one
which, in the human sense, we call fortuitous.

May we not say then, that the deductive method elucidates
this vexed question in physiology; while at the same time
our argument collaterally exhibits the limits within whicli
the deductive method is applicable. For while we see that
this extremely general question may be satisfactorily dealt
with deductively; the conclusion arrived at itself implies
that the more special phenomena of organization cannot be
so dealt with.

There is yet another method of investigating the general
truths of physiology — a method to which physiology already
owes one luminous idea, but which is not at present formally
recognized as a method. We refer to the comparison of
physiological phenomena with social phenomena.

The analogy between individual organisms and the social
organism, is one that has from early days occasionally
forced itself on the attention of the observant. And though
modern science does not countenance those crude ideas of
this analogy which have been from time to time expressed
since the Greeks flourished ; yet it tends to show that there
is an analogy, and a remarkable one. While it is becoming
clear that there are not those special parallelisms between
the constituent parts of a man and those of a nation, which
have been thought to exist; it is also becoming clear that
the general principles of development and structure dis-
played in organized bodies are displayed in societies also.
The fundamental characteristic both of societies and of
living creatures, is, that they consist of mutually-dependent
parts; and it would seem that this involves a community of
various other characteristics. Those who are acquainted

102

TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSIOLOGY.

with the broad facts of both physiology and sociology, are
beginning to recognize this correspondence not as a plausible
fancy, but as a scientific truth. And we are strongly of
opinion that it will by and by be seen to hold to an extent
which few at present suspect.

Meanwhile, if any such correspondence exists, it is clear
that physiology and sociology will more or less interpret
each other. Each affords its special facilities for inquiry.
Relations of cause and effect clearly traceable in the social
organism, may lead to the search for analogous ones in the
individual organism ; and may so elucidate what might else
be inexplicable. Laws of growth and function disclosed
by the pure physiologist, may occasionally give us the clue
to certain social modifications otherwise difficult to under-
stand. If they can do no more, the two sciences can at
least exchange suggestions and confirmations ; and this
will be no small aid. The conception of “ the physiological
division of labour,” which political economy has already
supplied to physiology, is one of no small value. And
probably it. has others to give.

In support of this opinion, we will now cite cases in
which such aid is furnished. And in the first place, let ns
see whether the facts of social organization do not afford
additional support to some of the doctrines set forth in the
foregoing parts of this article.

One of the propositions supported by evidence was that
in animals the process of development is canned on, not by
differentiations only, but by subordinate integrations. Now
in the social organism we may see the same duality of
process j and further, it is to be observed that the integrations
are of the same three kinds. Thus we have integrations
which arise from the simple growth of adjacent parts that
perform like functions : as, for instance, the coalescence of
Manchester with its calico-weaving suburbs. We have
other integrations which arise when, out of several places
producing a particular commodity, one monopolizes more

TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSIOLOGY. X03

and more of the business, and leaves tlie rest to dwindle :
witness the growth, of the Yorkshire cloth-districts at the
expense of those in the west of England ; or the absorption
by Staffordshire of the pottery-manufacture* and the
consequent decay of the establishments that once flourished
at Worcester, Derby, and elsewhere. And we have those
yet other integrations which result from the actual approxi-
mation of the similarly-occupied parts : whence result such
facts as the concentration of publishers in Paternoster
Row, of lawyers in the Temple and neighbourhood, of
corn-merchants about Mark Lane, of civil engineers iu
Great George Street, of bankers in the centre of the city.
Finding thus that in the evolution of the social organism,
as in the evolution of individual organisms, there are
integrations as well as differentiations, and moreover that
these integrations are of the same three orders ; we have
additional reason for considering these integrations as
essential parts of the developmental process, needed to be
included in its formula. And further, the circumstance
that in the social organism these integrations are deter-
mined by community of function, confirms the hypothesis
that they are thus determined in the individual organism.

Again, we endeavoured to show deductively, that the
contrasts of parts first seen in all unfolding embryos, are
consequent upon the contrasted circumstances to which
such parts are exposed; that thus, adaptation of consti-
tution to conditions is the principle which determines their
primary changes ; and that, possibly, if we include under
the formula hereditarily-transmitted adaptations, all sub-
sequent differentiations may be similarly determined.
Well, we need not long contemplate the facts to see
that some of the predominant social differentiations are
brought about in an analogous way. As the members of an
originally-liomogeneous community multiply and spread,
the gradual separation into sections which simultaneously
takes place, manifestly depends on differences of local

104 transcendental physiology.

circumstances. Those who happen to live near some place
chosen, perhaps for its centrality, as one of periodical
assemblage, become traders, and a town springs up ; those
who live dispersed, continue to hunt or cultivate the earth ;
those who spread to the sea-shore fall into maritime occu-
pations. And each of these classes undergoes modifications
of character fitting to its function. Later in the process of
social evolution these local adaptations are greatly multi-
plied. In virtue of differences of soil and climate, the rural
inhabitants in different parts of the kingdom, have their
occupations partially specialized; and are respectively
distinguished as chiefly producing cattle, or sheep, or
wheat, or oats, or hops, or cider. People living where
coal-fields are discovered become colliers ; Cornishruen
take to mining because Cornwall is metalliferous ; and
the iron-manufacture is the dominant industry where
ironstone is plentiful. Liverpool has assumed the office of
importing cotton, in consequence of its proximity to the
district where cotton goods are made ; and for analogous
reasons Hull has become the chief port at which foreign
wools are brought in. Even in the establishment of
breweries, of dye-works, of slate-quarries, of brick-yards,
we may see the same truth. So that, both in general and
in detail, these industrial specializations of the social
organism which characterize separate districts, primarily
depend on local circumstances. Of the originally-similar
units making up the social mass, different groups assume
the different functions which their respective positions
entail; and become adapted to their conditions. Thus,
that which we concluded, a -priori , to be the leading cause
of organic differentiations, we find, a posteriori, to be the
leading cause of social differentiations. Hay further, as
we inferred that possibly the embryonic changes which are
not thus directly caused, are caused by hereditariiy-trans-
mitted adaptations ; so, we may actually see that in
embryonic societies, such changes as are not due to direct

TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSIOLOGY.

105

adaptations, arc in the main traceable to adaptations
originally undergone by tlie parent society. The colonies
founded by distinct nations, while they are alike in ex-
hibiting specializations caused in the way above described,
grow unlike in so far as they take on, more or less, the
organizations of the nations they sprung from. A French
settlement does not develop exactly after the same manner
as an English one ; and .both " assume forms different from
those which Roman settlements assumed. How the fact that
the differentiation of societiesis determined partly by the direct
adaptation of their units to local conditions, and partly by
the transmitted influence of like adaptations undergone by
ancestral societies, tends strongly to enforce the conclusion,
otherwise reached, that; the differentiation of individual
organisms, similarly results from immediate adaptations
compounded with ancestral adaptations.

From confirmations thus furnished by sociology to phy-
siology, let us now pass to a suggestion similarly furnished.
A factory, or other producing establishment, or a town
made up of such establishments, is an agency for elaborating
some commodity consumed by society at large; and may
be regarded as analogous to a gland or viscus in an indi-
vidual organism. If we inquire what is the primitive mode
in which one of these producing establishments grows up,
we find it to be this. A single worker, who himself sells
the produce of his labour, is tlie germ. His business
increasing, he employs helpers — his sons or others; and
having done this, he becomes a vendor not only of his own
handiwork, but of that of others. A further increase of
his business compels him to multiply his assistants, and his
sale grows so rapid that he is obliged to confine himself to
the process of selling: he ceases to be a producer, and
becomes simply a channel through which the produce of
others is conveyed to the public. Should his prosperity
rise yet higher, he finds that he is unable to manage even
the sale of his commodities, and has to employ others, pro-

106

TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSIOLOGY.

bably of Ins own family; to . aid 3n*m in selling ; so that, to
him as a main channel are now added subordinate channels.
Moreover, when there grow up in one place, as a Manchester
or a Birmingham, many establishments of like kind, this
process is carried still further. There arise factors and
buyers, who are the channels through which is transmitted
the produce of many factories ; and we believe that pri-
marily these factors were manufacturers who undertook to
dispose of the produce of smaller houses as well as their
own, and ultimately became salesmen only. Under a con-
verse aspect, all the stages of this development have been
within these few years exemplified in our railway con-
tractors. There are sundry men now living who illustrate
the whole process in their own persons-— men who were
originally navvies, digging and wheeling; who then under-
took some small sub-contract, and worked along with those
they paid; who presently took larger contracts, and em-
ployed foremen; and who now contract for whole railways,
and let portions to sub-contractors. That is to say, we
have men who were originally workers, but have finally
become the main channels out of which diverge secondary
channels, which again bifurcate into the subordinate chan-
nels, through which flows the money (representing the
nutriment) supplied by society to the actual makers of the
railway. Now it seems worth inquiring whether this is not
the original course followed in the evolution of secreting
and excreting organs in an animal. W e know that such is
the process by which the liver is developed. Out of the
group of bile-cells forming the germ of it, some centrally,
placed ones, lying next to the intestine, are transformed
into ducts through which the secretion of the peripheral
bile-cells is poured into the intestine ; and as the peripheral
bile-cells multiply, there similarly arise secondary ducts
emptying themselves into the main ones; tertiary ones into
these; and so on. Recent inquiries show that the like is
the case with the lungs, — that the bronchial tubes are thus

TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSIOLOGY.

107

formed. But -while analogy suggests that this is the
original mode in which such organs are developed, it at the
same time suggests that this does not necessarily continue
to he the mode. For as we find that in the social organism,
manufacturing establishments are no longer commonly
developed through th e series of modifications above described,
but now mostly arise by the direct transformation of a
number of persons into master, clerks, foremen, workers,
&e. ; so the approximate method of forming organs, may
in some cases be replaced by a direct metamorphosis of the
organic units into the destined structure, without any tran-
sitional structures being passed through. That there are
organs thus formed is an ascertained fact ; and the addi-
tional question which analogy suggests is, whether the
direct method is substituted for the indirect method.

Such parallelisms might be multiplied. And were it
possible here to show in detail the close correspondence
between the two kinds of organization, our case would be
seen to have abundant support. But, as it is, these few
illustrations will sufficiently justify the opinion that study
of organized bodies may be indirectly furthered by study
of the body politic. Hints may be expected, if nothing
more. And thus we venture to think that the Inductive
Method, usually alone employed by most physiologists, may
not only derive important assistance from the Deductive
Method, but may farther be supplemented by the Socio-
logical Method.

THE NEBULAE HYPOTHESIS.

[First 2 niblished in The Westminster Review/or July, 1858. In
explanation of sundry passages, it seems needful to state that this
essay was written in defence of the Nebular Hypothesis at a time
when it had fallen into disrepute. Hence there are some opinions
spohen of as current which are no longer current .]

Inquiring into the pedigree of an idea is not a had means
of roughly estimating its value. To have come of respect-
able ancestry, is primd fade evidence of worth in a belief
as in a person ; while to be descended from a discreditable
stock is, in the one case as in the other, an unfavourable
index. The analogy is not a mere fancy. Beliefs, together
with those who hold them, are modified little by little in
successive generations; and a,s the modifications which
successive generations of the holders undergo do not de-
; stroy the original type, but only disguise and refine it, sd
the accompanying alterations of belief, however much they
purify, leave behind the essence of the original belief.

Considered genealogically, the received theory respecting
the creation of the Solar System is unmistakably of low
origin. You may clearly trace it back to primitive mytholo-
gies. Its remotest ancestor is the doctrine that the celestial
bodies are personages who originally lived on the Earth —
a doctrine still held by some of the negroes Livingstone
visited. Science having divested the sun and planets of
their divine personalities, this old idea was succeeded by
the idea which even Kepler entertained, that tlve planets
are guided in their courses by pi’esiding spirits : no longer
themselves gods, they are still severally kept in their orbits
by gods. And when gravitation came to dispense with
these celestial steersmen, there was begotten a belief, less

109

THE NEBULAE HYPOTHESIS.

gross tlia.ii its parent, but partaking of the same essential
nature, that the planets were originally launched into their
orbits by the Creator’s hand. Evidently, though much
refined, the anthropomorphism of the current hypothesis is
inherited from the aboriginal anthropomorphism, which
described gods as a stronger order of men.

There is an antagonist hypothesis which does not
propose to honour the Unknown Power manifested in the
Universe, by such titles as “ The Master-Builder/’ or “ The
Great Artificer •” but which regards this Unknown Power
as probably working after a method quite different from
that of human mechanics. And the genealogy of this
hypothesis is as high as that of the other is low. It is be-
gotten by that ever-enlarging and ever-strengthening belief
in the presence of Law, which accumulated experiences have
gradually produced in the human mind. Prom genera-
tion to generation Science has been proving uniformities
of relation among phenomena which were before thought
either fortuitous or supernatural in their origin — has been
showing an established order and a constant causation
where ignorance had assumed irregularity and arbitrariness.
Each further discovery of Law has increased the presump-
tion that Law is everywhere conformed to. And hence,
among other beliefs, has arisen the belief that the Solar
System originated, not by manufacture but by evolution.
Besides its abstract parentage in those grand general con-
ceptions which Science has generated, this hypothesis has
a concrete parentage of the highest character. Based as
it is on the law of universal gravitation, it may claim for
its remote progenitor the great thinker who established
that law. It was first suggested by one who ranks high
among philosophers. The man who collected evidence
indicating that stars result from the aggregation of diffused
matter, was the most diligent, careful, and original
astronomical observer of modern times. And the world
has not seen a more learned mathematician than the man

110

THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS.

■who, setting out with tins conception of diffused matter
concentrating towards its centre of gravity, pointed out the
way in which there would arise, in the course of its con-
centration, a balanced group of sun, planets, and satellites,
like that of which the Earth is a member.

Thus, even were there but little direct evidence assign-
able for the Nebular Hypothesis, the probability of its
truth would be strong. Its own high derivation and the
low derivation of the antagonist hypothesis, would
together form a weighty reason for accepting it — at any
rate, provisionally. But the direct evidence assignable for
the Nebular Hypothesis is by no means little. It is far
greater in quantity, and more varied in kind, than is com-
monly supposed. Much has been said here and there on
this or that class of evidences ; but nowhere, so far as we
know, have all the evidences been fully stated. We pro-
pose here to do something towards supplying the deficiency:
believing that, joined with the a priori reasons given above,
the array of a posteriori reasons will leave little doubt in
the mind of any candid inquirer.

And first, let us address ourselves to those recent dis-
coveries in stellar astronomy which have been supposed to
conflict with this celebrated speculation.

When Sir William Herschel, directing his great reflector
to various nebulous spots, found them resolvable into clus-
ters of stars, he inferred, and for a time maintained, that
all nebulous spots are clusters of stars exceedingly remote
from us. But after years of conscientious investigation, he
concluded that “ there were nebulosities which, are not of
a starry nature ; " and on this conclusion was based his
hypothesis of a diffused luminous fluid which, by its
eventual aggregation, produced stars. A telescopic power
much exceeding that used by Herschel, has enabled Lord
Bosse to resolve some of the nebula) previously unresolved ;
anti, returning to the conclusion which Herschel first

Ill

THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS.

formed on similar grounds "but afterwards rejected, many
astronomers have assumed that, under sufficiently high
powers, every nebula would "be decomposed into stars —
that the irresolvability is due solely to distance. The
hypothesis now commonly entertained is, that all nebulae
are galaxies more or less like in nature to that immediately
surrounding us ; but tbat they are so inconceivably remote
as to look, through ordinary telescopes, like small faint
spots. And not a few have drawn the corollary, that by
the discoveries of Lord Rosse the Nebular Hypothesis has
been disproved.

Now, even supposing that these inferences respecting
the distances and natures of the nebulae are valid, they
leave the Nebular Hypothesis substantially as it was.
Admitting that each of these faint spots is a sidereal
system, so far removed that its countless stars give less
light than one small star of our own sidereal system ; the
admission is in no way inconsistent with the belief that
stars, and their attendant planets, have been formed by the
aggregation of nebulous matter. Though, doubtless, if
the existence of nebulous matter now in course of concen-
tration be disproved, one of the evidences of the Nebular
Hypothesis is destroyed, yet the remaining evidences
remain. It is a tenable position that though nebular con-
densation is now nowhere to be seen in progress, yet it was
once going on universally. And, indeed, it might be
argued that the still-continued existence of diffused nebu-
lous matter is scarcely to be expected y seeing that the
causes which have resulted in the aggregation of one
mass, must have been acting on all masses, and tbat hence
the existence of masses not aggregated would be a fact
. calling for explanation. Thus, granting the immediate
conclusions suggested by these recent disclosures of th e
six-feet- reflector, the corollary which many have drawn is
inadmissible.

But these conclusions may be successfully contested.

112

THE HEBULAR HYPOTHESIS.

Beceiving tliem though we have "been, for years past, as
established truths, a critical examination of the facts has
convinced us that they are quite unwarrantable. They
involve so many manifest incongruities, that we have been
astonished to find men of science entertaining them, even
as probable. Let us consider these incongruities.

In the first place, mark what is inferable from the dis-
tribution of nebulae.

“ The spaces which precede or which follow simple nebulas,” says Arago,
“ and cl fortiori , groups of nebula, contain generally few stars. Herschel
found this rule to be invariable. Thus every time that during a short
interval no star approached in virtue of the diurnal motion, to place itself
in the field of hiB motionless telescope, he was accustomed to say to the
secretary who assisted him, — ‘ Prepare to write ; nebulae are about to arrive.’ ”

How does this fact consist with the hypothesis that
nebulas are remote galaxies? If there were but one nebula,
it would be a curious coincidence were this one nebula so
placed in the distant regions of space, as to agree in direc-
tion with a starless spot in our own sidereal system. If
there were but two nebulae, and both were so placed, the
coincidence would be excessively strange. What, then,
shall we say on finding that there are thousands of nebulas
so placed ? Shall we believe that in thousands of cases
these far-removed galaxies happen to agree in their visible
positions with the thin places in our own galaxy ? S.ucli a
belief is impossible.

Still more manifest does the impossibility of it become
when we consider the general distribution of nebulae.
Besides again showing itself in the fact that “ the poorest
regions in stars are near the richest in nebulae,” the law
above specified applies to the heavens as a whole. In
that zone of celestial space where stars are excessively
abundant, nebulae are rare j while in the two opposite
c elsstial spaces that are furthest removed from this zone,
nebulas are abundant. Scarcely any nebulae lie near the
galactic circle (or plane of the Milky Way) ; and the

THE NEBULAE HYPOTHESIS.

113

great mass of them lie round the galactic polos. Can this
also be mere coincidence? When to the fact that the
general mass of nebulae are antithetical in position to the
general mass of stars, we add the fact that local regions of
nebulae are regions where stars are scarce, and the further
fact that single nebulae are habitually found in compara-
tively starless spots; does not the proof of a physical
connexion become overwhelming ? Should it not require
an infinity of evidence to show that nebulae are not parts
of our sidereal system ? Let us see whether any such
infinity of evidence is assignable. Let us see whether there
is even a single alleged proof which will bear examination.

“As seen through colossal telescopes,” says Humboldt, “the contemplation
of these nebulous masses leads us into regions from whence a ray of light,
according to an assumption not wholly improbable, requires millions of years
to reach our earth— to distances for whose measurement the dimensions (the
distance of Sirius, or the calculated distances of the binary stars in Cygnus
and the Centaur) of our nearest stratum of fixed stars scarcely suffice.”

In this confused sentence there is implied a belief, that
the distances of the nebulae from our galaxy of stars as
much transcend the distances of our stars from one
another, as these interstellar distances transcend the
dimensions of our planetary system. J ust as the diameter
of the Earth’s orbit, is a mere point when compared with
the distance of our Sun from Sirius; so is the distance
of our Sun from Sirius, a mere point when compared
with the distance of our galaxy from those far-removed
galaxies constituting nebulae. Observe the consequences
of this assumption.

If one of these supposed galaxies is so remote that its
distance dwarfs our interstellar spaces into points, and
therefore makes the dimensions of our whole sidereal
system relatively insignificant; does it not inevitably
follow that the telescopic power required to resolve this
remote galaxy into stars, must be incomparably greater
than the telescopic power required to resolve the whole

114 THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS.

of our own galaxy into stars? Is it not certain that an
instrument which can just exhibit with clearness the most
distant stars of our own cluster, must ho utterly unable to
separate one of these remote clusters into stars ? What,
then, are we to think when we find that the same
instrument which decomposes hosts of nebulas into stars,
fails to resolve completely our own Milky Way? Take
a homely comparison. Suppose a man who was surrounded
by a swarm of bees, extending, as they sometimes do, so
high in the air as to render some of the individual bees
almost invisible, were to declare that a certain spot on the
horizon was a swarm of bees ; and that he knew it because
lie could see the bees as separate specks. Incredible as
the assertion would be, it would not exceed in incredibility
this which we are criticising. Reduce the dimensions to
figures, and the absurdity becomes still more palpable.
In round numbers, the distance of Sirius from the Earth
is half a million times the distance of the Earth from the
Sun ; and, according to the hypothesis, the distance of a
nebula is something like half a million times the distance
of Sirius. Now, our own “starry island, or nebula,” as
Humboldt calls it, “ forms a lens-shaped, flattened, and
everywhere detached stratum, whose . major axis is
estimated at seven or eight hundred, and its minor axis
at a hundred and fifty times the distance of Sirius from
the Earth”* And since it is concluded that the Solar
System is near the centre of this aggregation, it follows
that our distance from the remotest parts of it is some four
hundred distances of Sirius. But the stars forming these
remotest parts are not individually visible, even through
telescopes of the highest power. How, then, can such
telescopes make individually visible the stars of a- nebula
which is half a, million times the distance of Sirius ? The
implication is, that a star rendered invisible by distance
* Cosmos. (Seventh Edition.) Vol. i. pp. 79, 80.

135

THE NEBULAE HYPOTHESIS.

becomes visible if taken twelve hundred times further off !
Shall we accept this implication ? or shall w© not rather
conclude that the nebulae are not remote galaxies ? Shall
we not infer that, be their nature what it may, they must
be at least as near to us as the extremities of our own
sidereal system ?

Throughout the above argument, it is tacitly assumed
that differences of apparent magnitude among the stars,
result mainly from differences of distance. On this
assumption the current doctrines respecting the nebulas are
founded; and this assumption is, for the nonce, admitted
in each of the foregoing criticisms. From the time, how-
ever, when it was first made by Sir ~W. Herschel, this
assumption has been purely gratuitous ; and it now
proves to be inadmissible. But, awkwardly enough, its
truth and its untruth are alike fatal to the conclusions of
those who argue after the manner of Humboldt. Note
the alternatives.

On the one hand, wbat follows from the untruth of the
assumption ? If apparent largeness of stars is not due to
comparative nearness, and their successively smaller sizes
to, their greater and greater degrees of remoteness, what
becomes of the inferences respecting the dimensions of our
sidereal system and the distances of nebulas ? If, as has
lately been shown, the almost invisible star 61 Cygni
has a greater parallax than a Cygni, though, according to
an estimate based on Sir W. Herschel’ s assumption, it
should be about twelve times more distant — if, as it turns
out, there exist telescopic stars which are nearer to us
than Sirius ; of what worth is the conclusion that the
nebulae are very remote, because their component luminous
masses are made visible only by high telescopic powers ?
Clearly, if the most brilliant star in the heavens and a
star that cannot be seen by the naked eye, prove to be
equidistant, relative distances cannot be in the least
inferred from relative visibilities. And if so, nebulie may

116 THE NEBULAE. HYPOTHESIS.

be comparatively near, though the starlets of wliicli they
are made up appear extremely minute.

On tlie oilier band, what follows if the truth of the
assumption be granted? The arguments used to justify
this assumption in the case of the stars, equally justify it
in the case of the nebulae. It cannot be contended that,
on the average, the apparent sizes of the stars indicate
their distances, without its being admitted that, on the
average, the apparent sizes of the nebulae indicate their
distances — that, generally speaking, the larger are the
nearer and the smaller are the more distant. Mark, now,
the necessary inference respecting their resolvability.
The largest or nearest nebulae -will be most easily resolved
into stars; the successively smaller will be successively
more difficult of resolution ; and the irresolvable ones will
be the smallest ones. This, however, is exactly the
reverse of the fact. The largest nebulae are either wholly
irresolvable, or but partially resolvable under the highest
telescopic powers; while large numbers of quite small,
nebulae are easily resolved by far less powerful telescopes.
An instrument through which the great nebula in Andro-
meda, two and a half degrees long and one degree broad,
appears merely as a diffused light, decomposes a nebula of
fifteen minutes diameter into twenty thousand starry points.
At the same time that the individual stars of a nebula eight
minutes in diameter are so clearly seen as to allow of their
number being estimated, a nebula covering an area five
hundred times as great shows no stars at all ! What
possible explanation of this can be given on the
current hypothesis ?

Yet a further difficulty remains — one which is, perhaps;
still more obviously fatal than the foregoing. This diffi-
culty is presented by the phenomena of the Magellanic clouds.
Describing* the larger of these. Sir John Herschel says : —

“ The Nubecula Major, like the Minor, consists partly of large tracts and
ill-defined patches of irresolvable nebula, and of nebulosity in every stage of

117

THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS.

resolution, up to perfectly resolved stars like the Milky Way, as also of
regular and irregular nebulre properly so called, of globular clusters in every
stage of resolvability, and of clustering groups sufficiently insulated and
condensed to come under the designation of * clusters of stars.’ ” — Cape
Observations, p. 14G.

In. Ms Outlines of Astronomy, Sir John Herschel, after
repeating this description in other words, goes on to
remark that — •

“ This combination of characters, rightly considered, is in a high degree
instructive, affording an insight into the probable comparative distance of
stars and nebula, and the real brightness of individual stars as compared
with one another. Taking the apparent semidiameter of the nubecula
major at three degrees, and regarding its solid form as, roughly speaking,
spherical, its nearest and most remote parts differ in their distance from us
by a little more than a tenth part of our distance from its center. The
brightness of objects situated in its nearer portions, therefore, cannot be
much exaggerated, nor that of its remoter much enfeebled, by their difference
of distance ; yet within this globular space, we have collected upwards of six
hundred stars of the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth magnitudes, nearly three
hundred nebula, and globular and other clusters, of all degrees of resolvability,
and smaller scattered stars innumerable of every inferior magnitude, from
the tenth to such as by their multitude and minuteness constitute irresolvable
nebulosity, extending over tracts of many square degrees. Were there but
one such object, it might be maintained without utter improbability that its
apparent sphericity is only an effect of foreshortening, and that in reality a
much greater proportional difference of distance between its nearer and .more
remote parts exists. But such an adjustment, improbable enough in one
case, must be rejected as too much so for fair argument in two. It must,
therefore, be taken as a demonstrated fact, that stars of the seventh or
eighth magnitude and irresolvable nebula may co-exist within limits of
distance not differing in proportion more than as nine to ten.” — Outlines of
Astronomy (10th Ed.), pp. 656-57.

TMs supplies yet another reductio ad absurdum of the
doctrine we are combating. It gives us the choice of two
incredibilities. If we are to believe that one of these
included neb uho is so remote that its hundred thousand
stars look like a milky spot, invisible to the naked eye;
we must also believe that there are single stars so enormous
that though removed to this same distance they remain
visible. If we accept the other alternative, and say that
many nebuloa are no further off than our own stars of the
eighth, magnitude; then it is requisite to 'say that at a

118

THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS.

distance not greater than, that at which, a single star is still
faintly visible to the naked eye, there may exist a group of
a hundred thousand stars which is invisible to the naked
eye. Neither of these suppositions can ho entertained.
What, then, is the conclusion that remains ? This only :
— that the nebula) are not further from us than parts of our
own sidereal system, of which they must be considered
members ; and that when they are resolvable into discrete
masses, these masses cannot be considered as stars in any-
thing like the ordinary sense of that word.*

And now, having seen the untenability of this idea,
rashly espoused by sundry astronomers, that the neb ulna
are extremely remote galaxies; let us consider whether the
various appearances they present are not reconcilable with
the Nebular Hypothesis.

Given a rare and widely-diffused mass of nebulous matter,
having a diameter, say, of one hundred times that of the
Solar System,!' what are the successive changes that may
be expected to take place in it ? Mutual gravitation will
approximate its atoms or its molecules; but their approxi-
mation will he opposed by that atomic motion the resultant
of which we recognize as repulsion, and the overcoming
of which implies the evolution of heat. As fast as this
heat partially escapes by radiation, further approximation
will take place, attended by further evolution of heat, and
so on continuously: the processes not occurring separately
as here described, but simultaneously, uninterruptedly, and
with increasing activity. When the nebulous mass bus

* Since the publication of this essay the late Mr. It. A. Proctor has given
various further reasons for the conclusion that the nebula) belong to our
own sidereal system. The opposite conclusion, contested throughout the
foregoing section, lias now been taeitly abandoned.

t Any objection made to the extreme tenuity this involves, is met by the
calculation of Newton, who proved that were a spherical inch of air removed
four thousand miles from the Earth, it would expand into a sphere more
than filling the orbit of Saturn.

n<j

THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS.

reached a particular stage of condensation — when its
infernally-situated atoms have approached to within certain
distances, have generated a certain amount of heat, and
are subject to a certain mutual pressure, combinations may
be anticipated. Whether the molecules produced be of
hinds such as we know, which is possible, or whether they
be of kinds simpler than any we know, which is more
probable, matters not to the argument. It suffices that
molecular unions, either between atoms of the same kind
or between atoms of different kinds, will finally take place.
When they do take place, they will be accompanied by a
sudden and great disengagement of heat; and until this
excess of heat has escaped, the newly-formed molecules will
remain uniformly diffused, or, as it were, dissolved in the
pre-existing nebulous medium.

But now what may be expected by and by to happen ?
When radiation has adequately lowered the temperature,
these molecules will precipitate ; and, having precipitated,
they will not remain uniformly diffused, hut will aggregate
into flocculi; just as water, precipitated from air, collects
into clouds. Concluding, thus, that a nebulous mass will,
in course of time, resolve itself into flocculi of precipitated
denser matter, floating in the rarer medium from which
they were precipitated, let us inquire what are the mechan-
ical results to be inferred. Of clustered bodies in empty
space, each will move along a line which is the resultant
of the tractive forces exercised by all the rest, modified
from moment to moment by the acquired motion ; and the
aggregation of such clustered bodies, if it eventually
results at all, can result only from collision, dissipation, and
the formation of a resisting medium. But with clustered
bodies already immersed in a resisting medium, and
especially if such bodies are of small densities, such as
those we are considering, the process of concentration will
begin forthwith : two factors conspiring to produce it.
The flocculi described, irregular in their shapes and pre-

120

TIM NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS,

senting, as they must in nearly all cases, nnsymmetrical
faces to their lines of motion, will be deflected from, those
courses which mutual gravitation, if uninterfered with,
would produce among them ; and this will militate against
that balancing of movements which permanence of the
cluster pre-supposes. If it be said, as it may truly be
said, that this is too trifling a cause of derangement to
produce much effect, then there comes the more important
cause with which it co-operates. The medium from which
the flocculi have been precipitated, and through which they
are moving, must, by gravitation, be rendered denser in
its central parts than in its peripheral parts. Hence the
flocculi, none of them moving in straight lines to the
common centre of gravity, but having courses made to
diverge to one or other side of it (in small degrees by the
cause just assigned, and in much greater degrees by
the tractive forces of other flocculi) will, in moving towards
the central region, meet with greater resistances on their
inner sides than on their outer sides; and will be thus mad©
to diverge outwardly from their courses more than they
would otherwise do. Hence a tendency which, apart from
other tendencies, will cause them severally to go on one or
other side of the centre of gravity, and, approaching it, to get
motions more and more tangential. Observe, however, that
their respective motions will be deflected, not towards one
side of the common centre of gravity, but towards various
sides. How then can there result a movement common to
them all? Yery simply. Each flocculus, in describing its
course, must give motion to the medium through which it
is moving. But the probabilities are infinity to one against
all the respective motions thus impressed on this medium,
exactly balancing oue another. And if they do not balance
one another the result must be rotation of the whole mass
of the medium in one direction. But preponderating
momentum in one direction, having caused rotation of the
medium in that direction, the rotating medium must in its

THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS.

121

turn gradually arrest sucli flocculi as are moving 1 in opposi-
tion, and impress its own motion upon them ; and thus
there will ultimately he formed a rotating medium with
suspended flocculi partaking of its motion, while they move in
converging spirals towards the common centre of gravity
Before comparing these conclusions with facts, let us
pursue the reasoning a little further, and observe certain
subordinate actions. The respective flocculi must be
drawn not towards their common centre of gravity only,

* A reference may fitly be made here to a reason given by Hons. Babinet
for rejection of the Nebular Hypothesis. He has calculated that taking the
existing Sun, with its observed angular velocity, its substance, if expanded
so as to fill the orbit of Neptune, would have nothing approaching the
angular velocity which the time of revolution of that planet implies. The
assumption he makes is inadmissible. He supposes that all parts of the
nebulous spheroid when it filled Neptune’s orbit, had the same angular
velocities. But the process of nebular condensation as indicated above,
implies that the remoter flocculi of nebulous matter, later in reaching
the central mass, and forming its peripheral portions, will acquire, during
their longer journeys towards it, greater velocities. An inspection of one
of the spiral nebulas, as 51st or 99th Messier, at once shows that the out*
lying portions when they reach the nucleus, will form an equatorial belt
moving round the common centre more rapidly than the rest. Thus the
central parts will have small angular velocities, while there will be increas-
ing angular velocities of parts increasingly remote from the centre. And
while the density of the spheroid continues small, fluid friction will scarcely
at all change these differences.

A like criticism niay, I think, he passed on an - opinion expressed by Prof.
Newcomb, He says : — “When the conti’action [of the nebulous spheroid]
had gone so far that the centrifugal and attracting forces nearly balanced
each other at the outer equatorial limit of the mass, the result would have
been that contraction in the direction of the equator would cease entirely,
and be confined to the polar regions, each particle dropping, not towards the
sun, but towards the plane of the solar equator. Thus, we should have a
constant flattening of the spheroidal atmosphere until it was reduced to a
thin flat disk. This disk might then separate itself into rings, which would
form planets in much the same way that Laplace supposed. But there would
probably be no marked difference in the age of the planets.” (Popular
Astronomy, p. 512.) Now this conclusion assumes, like that of M. Babinet,
that all parts of the nebulous spheroid had equal angular velocities. If,
as above contended, it is inferable from the process by which a nebulous
spheroid was formed, that its outer portions revolved with greater angular
velocities than its inner ; then the inference which Prof. Newcomb draws is
not necessitated.

122

THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS.

but also towards neighbourin g floccnli. Hence the whole
assemblage of floccnli will : break up into groups : each
group concentrating towards its local centre of gravity,
and in so doing acquiring a vortical -movement like that
subsequently acquired by the whole nebula. According to
circumstances, and chiefly according to the size of the
original nebulous mass, this process of local ' aggregation,
will produce various results. If the whole nebula is but
small, the local groups of floccnli may be drawn into the
common centre of gravity before their constituent masses
have coalesced with one another. In a larger nebula,
these local aggregations may have concentrated into
rotating spheroids of vapour, while yet they have made
but little approach towards the general focus of the
system. In a still larger nebula, where the local aggrega-
tions are both, greater and more remote from the common
centre of gravity, they may have condensed into masses
of molten matter before the general distribution of them
has greatly altered. In short, as the conditions in each
case determine, the discrete masses produced may vary
indefinitely in number, in size, in density, in motion, in
distribution.

And now let us return to the visible characters of
nebulae, as observed through modern telescopes. Take
first the description of those nebulas which, by the
hypothesis, must be in an early stage of evolution.

Among the “ irregular nebula,” says Sir John Berschel, “ may ho
comprehended all which, to a want of complete and inmost instances even
of partial resohability "by the power of the 20-feet reflector, unite such a
deviation from the circular or elliptic form, or such a want of symmetry (with
that form) as preclude their being placed in. class 1, or that of Regular
Nebulas, This second class comprises many of the most remarkable and
interesting objects in the heavens, as well as the most extensive in respect of
the area they occupy.”

And, referring to this same order of objects, M. Arago
says : — “ The forms of very large diffuse nebulae do nut
appear to admit of definition; they have no regular outline.”

This coexistence of largeness, irregularity, and inde-

TIT E NEBULAE HYPOTHESIS.

finiteness of outline., with, irresolvability, is extremely
significant. Tlio fact that the largest nebulas are either
irresolvable or very difficult to resolve, might have been
inferred a priori ; seeing that irresolvability, implying that
the aggregation of precipitated matter has gone on to but
a small extent, will be found in nebulas of wide diffusion.
Again, the irregularity of these large, irresolvable nebulae,
might also have been expected ; seeing that their outlines,
compared by Arago with “ the fantastic figures which
characterize clouds carried away and tossed about by
violent and often contrary winds,” are similarly charac-
teristic of a mass not yet gathered together by the mutual
attraction of its parts. And once more, the fact that these
large, irregular, irresolvable nebulas have indefinite outlines
— outlines that fade off insensibly into surrounding dark-
ness — is one of like meaning.

Speaking generally (and of course differences of distance
negative anything beyond average statements), the spiral
nebulas are smaller than the irregular nebulas, aud more
resolvable ; at the same time that they are not so small
as the regular nebulas, and not so resolvable. This is as,
according to the hypothesis, it should be. The degree of
condensation causing spiral movement, is a degree of
condensation also implying masses of flocculi that are
larger, and therefore more visible, than those existing in
an earlier stage. Moreover, the forms of these spiral
nebulas are quite in harmony with the explanation given.
The curves of luminous matter which they exhibit, are not
such as would be described by discrete masses starting
from a state of rest, and moving through a resisting
medium to a common centre of gravity j but they aro such
as would be described by masses having their movements
modified by the rotation of the medium.

In the centre of a spiral nebula is seen a mass both
more luminous aud more resolvable than the rest. Assume
that, in process of time, all the spiral streaks of luminous

124

the nebular hypothesis.

matter which converge to tliis centre are drawn into it, as
they must lbe ; assume further, that the flocculi, or other
discrete portions constituting these luminous streaks,
aggregate into larger masses at the same time that they
approach the central group, and that the masses forming
this central group also aggregate into larger masses; and
there will finally result a cluster of such larger masses,
which will he resolvable with comparative ease. And, as
the coalescence and concentration go on, the constituent
masses will gradually become -fewer, larger, brighter, and
more densely collected around the common centre of
gravity. See now how completely this inference agrees
with observation. “ The circular form is that which most
commonly characterises resolvable nebulae / 5 writes Arago.
Resolvable nebulae, says Sir John Herschel, “ are almost
universally round or oval . 55 Moreover, the centre of each
group habitually displays a closer clustering of the
constituent masses than the outer parts; and it. is shown,
that, under the law of gravitation, which we now know
extends to the stars, this distribution is not one of equili-
brium, but implies progressing concentration. While, just as
we inferred that, according to circumstances, the extent to
which aggregation has been carried must vary; so we find
that, in fact, there are regular nebulae of all degrees of
resolvability, from those consisting of innumerable minute
masses, to those in which their numbers are smaller and the
sizes greater, and to those in which there are a few large
bodies worthy to be called stars.

On the one hand, then, we see that the notion, of
late years uncritically received, that the nebulae are
extremely remote galaxies of stars like those which make
up our own Milky Way, is totally irreeoncileable with the
facts— involves us in sundry absurdities. On the other
hand, we see that the hypothesis of nebular condensation
harmonizes with the most recent results of stellar astro-
nomy : nay more — that it supplies us with an explanation

THE NEBULAE HYPOTHESIS. 125

of various appearances wliicli in its absence would be
incomprehensible.

Descending now to the Solar System, let 11s consider first
a class of phenomena in some sort transitional — those
offered by comets. In them, or at least in those most
numerous of them which lie far out of the plane of the
Solar System, and are not to be counted among its
members, we have, still existing, a hind of matter like that
out of which, according to the Nebular Hypothesis, the
Solar System was evolved. Hence, for the explanation of
them, we must go back to the time when the substances
forming the sun and planets were yet unconcentrated.

When diffused matter, precipitated from a rarer medium,
is aggregating, there are certain to be here and there
produced small flocculi, which long remain detached j as
do, for instance, minute shreds of cloud in a summer sky.
In a concentrating nebula these will, in the majority of cases,
eventually coalesce with the larger flocculi near to them.
But it is tolerably evident that some of those formed at
the outermost parts of the nebula, will not coalesce with
the larger internal masses, but will slowly follow without
overtaking them. The relatively greater resistance of the
medium necessitates this. As a single feather falling to
the ground will be rapidly left behind by a pillow-full of
feathers j so, in their progress to the common centre of
gravity, will the outermost shreds of vapour be left behind
by the great masses of vapour internally situated. But
we are not dependent merely on reasoning for this belief.
Observation shows us that the less concentrated external
parts of nebulae, are left behind by the more concentrated
internal parts . Examined through high powers, all nebulae,
even when they have assumed regular forms, are seen to
be surrounded by luminous streaks, of which the directions
show that they are being drawn into the general mass.
Still higher powers bring into view still smaller, fainter,

126

THE NEBULAE IJYXWHESIS.

and more widely-dispersed streaks. And it cannot be
doubted that the minute fragments which no telescopic aid
makes visible, are yet more numerous and widely dispersed*
Thus far, then, inference and observation are at one.

Granting that the great majority of these outlying
portions of nebulous matter will be drawn into the central
mass long before it reaches a definite form, the presumption
is that some of the very small, far-removed portions
will not be so ; but that before they arrive near it, the
central mass will have contracted into a comparatively
moderate bulb. What now will be tlie characters of these
late-arriving portions ?

In the first place, they will have either extremely
eccentric orbits or nan-elliptic paths. Left behind at a
time when they were moving towards the centre of gravity
in slightly-deflected lines, and therefore having but very
small angular velocities, they will approach the central
mass in greatly elongated curves ; and rushing round it,
will go off again into space. That is, they will behave
just as we seethe majority of comets do; the orbits of which
are either so eccentric as to be indistinguishable from para-
bolas, or else tire not orbits at all, but are paths which are
distinctly either parabolic or hyperbolic.

In the second place, they will come from all parts
of the heavens. Our supposition implies that they were
left behind at a time when the nebulous mass was of
irregular shape, and had not acquired a definite rotation ;
and as the separation of them would not be from any-
one surface of the nebulous mass more than another, the
conclusion must be that they will come to the central body
from various directions in space. This, too, is exactly
what happens. Unlike planets, whose orbits approximate
to one plane, comets have orbits that show no relation to
one another; but cut the plane of the ecliptic at all angles,
and have axes inclined to it at all angles.

TILE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS. 127

In tlie third place, these remotest flocculi of nebulous
matter will, at the outset, be deflected from their direct
courses to the common centre of gravity, not all on one
side, "but each on such side as its form, or its original
proper motion, determines. And being left behind before
the rotation of the nebula is set up, they will severally
retain their different individual motions. Hence, following
the concentrated mass, they will eventually go round it
on all sides; and as often from right to left as from left
to right. Here again the inference perfectly corresponds
with the facts. While all the planets go round the sun
from west to east, comets as often go round the sun from
east to west as from west to east. Of 262 comets recorded
since 1680, 180 are direct, and 132 are retrograde. This
equality is what the law of probabilities would indicate.

Then, in the fourth place, the physical- constitution of
comets accords with the hypothesis.* The ability of
nebulous matter to concentrate into a concrete form,
depends on its mass. To bring its ultimate atoms into
that proximity requisite for chemical union— requisite, that
is, for the production of denser matter — their' repulsion
must be overcome. The only force antagonistic to their
repulsion, is their mutual gravitation. That their mutual
gravitation may generate a pressure and temperature of
sufficient intensity, there must bean enormous accumulation
of them ; and even then the approximation can slowly go on
only as fast as the evolved heat escapes. But where the
quantity of atoms is small, and therefore the force of
mutual gravitation small, there will be nothing to. coerce
the atoms into union. Whence we infer that these

* It is true that since this essay was written reasons have been given for
concluding that comets consist of swarms of meteors enveloped in aeriform
matter. Very possibly this is the constitution of the periodic comets which,
approximating their orbits to the plane of the Solar System, form established
parts of the System, and which, as will bo hereafter indicated, have
probably a gnite different origin.

128

THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS.

detached fragments of nebulous matter will continue in
tlieir original state. Non-periodic comets seem to do so.

We have already seen that tliis view of the origin of
comets harmonizes with the characters of their orbits ;
hut the evidence hence derived is much stronger than
Was indicated. The great majority of cometary orbits are
classed as parabolic ; and it is ordinarily inferred that they
are visitors from remote space, and will never return.
But are they rightly classed as parabolic? Observations
on a comet moving in an extremely eccentric ellipse, which
are possible only when it is comparatively near peri-
helion, must fail to distinguish its orbit from a parabola.
Evidently, then, it is not safe to class it as a parabola
because of inability to detect the elements of an ellipse.
But if extreme eccentricity of an orbit necessitates such
inability, it seems quite possible that comets have no other
orbits than elliptic ones. Though five or six are said to
be hyperbolic, yet, as I learn from one who has paid special
attention to comets, “no such orbit has, X believe, been
computed for a well-observed comet.” Hence the proba-
bility that all the orbits are ellipses is overwhelming.
Ellipses and hyperbolas have countless varieties of forms,
but there is only one form of parabola ; or, to speak literally,
all parabolas are similar, while there are infinitely numerous
dissimilar ellipses and dissimilar hyperbolas. Consequently,
anything coming to the Sun from a great distance must have
one exact amount of proper motion to produce a parabola :
all other amounts would give hyperbolas or ellipses. And
if there are no hyperbolic orbits, then it is infinity to one
that all the orbits are elliptical. This is just what they
would be if comets had the genesis above supposed.

And now, leaving these erratic bodies, let us turn, to the
more familiar and important members of the Solar System,
It was the remarkable harmony among their movements
which first made Laplace conceive that the Sun, planets,
and satellites had resulted from a common genetic process.

THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS.

129

As Sir William Herschel, by bis observations on tbe nebulas,
was led to tlie conclusion that stars resulted from tbe
aggregation of diffused matter ; so Laplace, by bis obser-
vations on tbe structure of tbe Solar System, was led to
tbe conclusion that only by the rotation of aggregating
matter were its peculiarities to be explained. In bis
Exposition du Systems du Monde, he enumerates as the
leading’ evidences : — 1. The movements of the planets in tbe
same direction and in orbits approaching to the same
plane; 2. Tbe movements of the satellites in the same
direction as those of the planets; 3. Tbe movements of
rotation of these various bodies and of tbe sun in the same
direction as tbe orbital motions, and mostly in planes
little different ; 4. The small eccentricities of tbe orbits of
the planets and satellites, as contrasted with the great
eccentricities of tbe cometary orbits. And tbe probability
that these harmonious movements bad a common cause, he
calculates as two hundred thousand billions to one.

This immense preponderance of probability does not
point to a common cause under tbe form ordinarily con-
ceived — an Invisible Power working after tbe method of
“a Great Artificer;” but to an Invisible Power working
after the method of evolution. For though the supporters
of the common hypothesis may argue that it was necessary
for the sake of stability that the planets should go round
the Sun in the same direction and nearly in one plane, they
cannot thus account for the direction of the axial motions.*
The mechanical equilibrium would not have been interfered
with, had the Sun been without any rotatory movement ;
or had he revolved on his axis in a direction opposite to
that in which the planets go round him ; or in a direction
at right angles to the average plane of their orbits. With
equal safety the motion of the Moon round the Earth might
* Though this rule fails at the periphery of the Solar System, yet it fails
only where the axis of rotation, instead of being almost perpendicular to the
orbit-plane, is very little inclined to it ; and where, therefore, the forces tending
to produce the congruity of motions were but little operative.

MO'

THE' NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS.

liuve been the reverse of tho Earth’s motion round its
axis; or the motions of Jupiter’s satellites might similarly
have been at variance with his axial motion; or those of
Saturn’s satellites with his. As, however, none of these
alternatives have been followed, the uniformity must he.
considered, in this case as in all others, evidence of sub-,
ordination to some general law— implies what we call natural
causation, as distinguished from arbitrary arrangement.

Hence the hypothesis of evolution would be the only
probable one, even in the absence of any clue to the par-
ticular mode of evolution. But when we have, propounded
by a mathematician of the highest authority, a theory of
this evolution based on established mechanical principles,
which accounts for these various peculiarities, as well as
for many minor ones, the conclusion that the Solar System
was evolved becomes almost irresistible.

The general nature of Laplace’s theory scarcely needs
stating. Books of popular astronomy have familiarized
most readers with his conceptions; — namely, that the matter
now condensed into the Solar System, once formed a vast
rotating spheroid of extreme rarity extending beyond the
orbit of the outermost planet ; that as this spheroid con-
tracted, its rate of rotation necessarily increased ; that by
augmenting centrifugal force its equatorial zone was from
timo to time prevented from following any further the
concentrating mass, and so remained behind as a revolving
ring; that each, of the revolving rings thus periodically
detached, eventually became ruptured at its weakest point,
and, contracting on itself, gradually aggregated into a
rotating mass; that this, like the parent mass, increased in
rapidity of rotation as it decreased in size, and, where the
centrifugal force was sufficient, similarly left behind rings,
which finally collapsed into rotating spheroids; and that
thus, out of these primary and secondary rings, there arose
planets and their satellites, while from the central mass
there resulted the Sun. Moreover, it is tolerably well

TUB NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS.

131

known that this a 'priori reasoning harmonizes willi the
results of experiment. Dr. Plateau lias shown that when
a mass of fluid is/ as far may he/ protected from the action
of external forces, it will, if made to rotate with adequate
velocity, form detached rings; and that these rings will
break up into spheroids which turn on their axes in the
same direction with the central mass. Thus, given the
original nebula, which, acquiring a vortical motion in the
way indicated, has at length concentrated into a vast
spheroid of aeriform matter moving round its axis — given
this, and me chanicar principles explain the rest. Tlie
genesis of a Solar System displaying movements like those
observed, may be predicted; and the reasoning on which
the prediction is based is countenanced by experiment.*

But now let us inquire whether, besides these most con-
spicuous structural and dynamic peculiarities of the Solar
System, sundry minor ones are not similarly explicable.

Take first the relation between the planes of the planetary
orbits and the plane of the Sun’s equator. If, when the
nebulous spheroid extended beyond the orbit of Neptune,
all parts of it had been revolving exactly in the same plane,
or rather in parallel planes — if all its parts had had one
axis ; then the planes of the successive rings would have

♦It is true that, as expressed by him, these propositions of Laplace are
not all beyond dispute. An astronomer of the highest authority, who has
favoured me with some criticisms on this essay, alleges that instead of a
nebulous ring rupturing at one point, and collapsing into a single mass,
“ all probability would be in favour of its breaking up into many masses.”
This alternative result certainly seems the more likely. But granting that
a nebulous ring would break up into many masses, it may still be contended
that, since the chances are infinity to one against these being of equal siz.es
and equidistant, they could not remain evenly distributed round their orbit.
This annular chain of gaseous masses would break up into groups of masses ;
these groups would eventually aggregate into larger groups; and the final
result would te the formation of a single mass. I have put the question to
an astronomer scarcely second in authority to the one above referred to, and
lie agrees that this would probably be the process.

132

THE NEBULAE HYPOTHESIS.

"been coincident with, each other and with that of the Sun’s
rotation. But it needs only to go back to the earlier stages
of concentration, to see that there could exist no such com-
plete uniformity of motion. The flocculi, already described
as precipitated from an irregular and widely-diffused nebula,
and as starting from all points to their common centre of
gravity, must move not in one plane but in innumerable
planes, cutting each other at all angles. The gradual
establishment of a vortical motion such as we at present
see indicated in the spiral nebulas, is the gradual approach
towards motion in one plane. But this plane can but
slowly become decided. Flocculi not moving in this plane,
but entering into the aggregation at various inclinations,
will tend to perform their revolutions round its centre in
their own planes ; and only in course of time will their
motions be partly destroyed by conflicting ones, and partly
resolved into the general motion. Especially will the
outermost portions of the rotating mass retain for a long
time their more or less independent directions. Hence
the probabilities are, that the planes of the rings first
detached will differ considerably from the average plane
of the mass ; while the planes of those detached latest
will differ from it less.

Here, again, inference to a considerable extent agrees
with observation. Though the progression is irregular, yet,
on the average, the inclinations decrease on approaching the
Sun ; and this is all we can expect. For as the portions of
the nebulous spheroid must have arrived with miscellaneous
inclinations, its strata must have had planes of rotation
diverging from the average plane in degrees not always
proportionate to their distances from the centre.

Consider next the movements of the planets on their
axes. Laplace alleged as one among other evidences of
a common genetic cause, that the planets rotate in a direc-
tion the same as that in which they go round the Sun, and

THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS.

183

on axes approximately perpendicular to their orbits. Since
he wrote, an exception to this general rule has been discov-
ered in the case of Uranus, and another still more recently
in the case of Neptune — judging, at least, from the motions
of their respective satellites. This anomaly has been
thought to throw considerable doubt on his speculation j
and at first sight it does so. But a little reflection shows
that the anomaly is not inexplicable, and that Laplace simply
went too far in putting down as a certain result of nebular
genesis, what is, in some instances, only a probable result.
The cause he pointed out as determining the direction of
rotation, is the greater absolute velocity of the outer part of
the detached ring. But there are conditions under which
this difference of velocity may he too insignificant, even if
it exists. If a mass of nebulous matter approaching spirally
to the central spheroid, and eventually joining it tangentially,
is made up of parts having the same absolute velocities j
then, after joining the equatorial periphery of the spheroid
and being made to rotate with it, the angular velocity of
its outer parts will be smaller than the angular velocity of
its inner parts. Hence, if, when the angular velocities of
the outer and inner parts of a detached ring are the same,
there results a tendency to rotation in the same direction
with the orbital motion, it may be inferred that when the
outer parts of the ring have a smaller angular velocity
than the inner parts, a tendency to retrograde rotation will
be the consequence.

Again, the sectional form of the ring is a circumstance
of moment ; and this form must have differed more or less
in every case. To make this clear, some illustration will be
necessary. Suppose we take an orange, and, assuming the
marks of the stalk and the calyx to represent the poles,
cut off round the line of the equator a strip of peel. This
strip of peel, if placed on the table with its ends meeting,
will make a ring shaped like the hoop of a barrel — a ring
of which the thickness in the line of its diameter is very

184 the nebulae hypothesis.

small, but of -vvliicli tlie -width in a direction perpendicular
to its diameter is considerable. Suppose*; now, that in
place of an orange; which is a spheroid of very slight
oblateness, we take a spheroid of very great oblatenoss,
shaped somewhat like a lens of small convexity. If from
the edge or equator of this lens-shaped spheroid, a ring of
moderate size were cut off, it would be unlike the previous
ring in this respect, that its greatest thickness would be in
the line of its diameter, and not in a line at right angles
to its diameter : it would be a ring shaped somewhat like
a quoit, only far more slender. That is to say, according
to the oblateness of a rotating spheroid, the detached ring*
may be either a hoop-shaped ring or a quoit-shaped ring.

One 'further implication must be noted. In a much-
flattened or lens-shaped spheroid, the form of the ring will
vary with its bulk. A very slender ring, taking off just
the equatorial surface, will be hoop-shaped ; while a toler-
ably massive ring, trenching appreciably on the diameter
of the spheroid, will be quoit-shaped. Thus, then, according
to the oblateness of the spheroid and the bulkiness of the
detached ring, will the greatest thickness of that ring be
in the direction of its plane, or in a direction perpendicular
to its plane. But this circumstance must greatly affect the
rotation of the resulting planet. In a decidedly hoop-
shaped nebulous ring, the differences of velocity between
the inner and outer surfaces will be small ; and such a ling,
aggregating into a mass of which the greatest diameter is
at right angles to the plane of the orbit, will almost cer-
tainly give to this mass a predominant tendency to. rotate
in a direction at right angles to the plane of the orbit.
Where the ring is but little hoop-shaped, and the difference
between the inner and outer velocities greater, as it must
be, the opposing tendencies — ono to produce rotation in the
plane of the orbit, and the other, rotation perpendicular to
it — will both be influential; and an intermediate plane of
rotation will be taken up. While, if the nebulous ring is
decidedly quoit-shaped, and therefore aggregates into a

THE NEBULAE HYPOTHESIS.

135

mass whose greatest dimension lies in the plane of the
orbit, both tendencies will conspire to produce rotation in
that plane.

On referring to the facts, we find them, as far as can
be judged, in harmony with this view. Considering the
enormous circumference of Uranus’s orbit, and his com-
paratively small mass, we may conclude that the ring from
which he resulted was a comparatively slender, and there-
fore a hoop-shaped one: especially as the nebulous mass
must have been at that time less oblate than afterwards.
Hence, a plane of rotation nearly perpendicular to his
orbit, and a direction of rotation having no reference to
his orbital movement. Saturn has a mass seven times as
great, and an orbit of less than half the diameter j whence
it follows that his genetic ring, having less than half the
circumference, and less than half the vertical thickness
(the spheroid being then certainly as oblate, and indeed
more oblate), must have had a much greater width — must
have been less hoop-shaped, and more approaching to
the quoit-shaped : notwithstanding difference of density, it
must have been at least two or three times as broad in the
line of its plane. Consequently, Saturn has a rotatory
movement in the same direction as the movement of
translation, and in a plane differing from it by thirty
degrees only. In the case of Jupiter, again, whose mass is
three and a half times that of Saturn, and whose orbit
is little more than half the size, the genetic ring must, for
the like reasons, have been still broader — decidedly quoit-
shaped, we may say ; and there hence resulted a planet
whose plane of rotation differs from that of his orbit by
scarcely more than three degrees. Once more, considering
the comparative insignificance of Mars, Earth, Yen us, and
Mercury, it follows that, the diminishing circumferences of
the rings not sufficing to account for the smallness of the
resulting masses, the rings must have been slender ones — •
must have again approximated to the hoop-shaped; and
thus it happens that the planes of rotation again diverge
7

lo6 the nebular hypothesis.

more or less widely from tliose of tlie orbits. Taking: into
account the increasing oblateness of the original spheroid
in the successive stages of its concentration, and the different
proportions of 'the detached rings, it may fairly be held
that the respective rotatory motions are not at variance
with the hypothesis but contrariwise tend to confirm it.

Not only the directions, but also the velocities of rota-
tion seem thus explicable. It might naturally be supposed
that the large planets would revolve on their axes more
slowly than the small ones : our terrestrial experiences of
big and little bodies incline us to expect tins. It is a
corollary from the Nebular Hypothesis, however, more
especially when interpreted as above, that while large
planets will rotate rapidly, small ones will rotate slowly ;
and we find that in fact they do so. Other things equal, a
concentrating nebulous mass which is diffused through a
wide space, and whose outer parts have, therefore, to travel
from great distances to the common centre of gravity,
will acquire a high axial velocity in course of its aggre-
gation ; and conversely with a small mass. Still more
marked will be the difference where the form of the
genetic ring conspires to increase the rate of rotation.
Other things equal, a genetic ring which is broadest in the
direction of its plane will produce a mass rotating faster
than one which is broadest at right angles to its plane ;
and if the ring is absolutely as well as relatively broad,
the rotation will be very rapid. These conditions were, as
we saw, fulfilled in the case of Jupiter; and Jupiter turns
round his axis in less than ten hours. Saturn, in whose
case, as above explained, the conditions were less favour-
able to rapid rotation, takes nearly ten hours and a half.
"While Mars, Barth, "Venus, and Mercury, whose rings must
have been slender, take more than double that time : the
smallest taking the longest.

Brora the planets let us now pass to the satellites.
Here, beyond the conspicuous facts commonly adverted

THE NEBULAE HYPOTHESIS.

137

to, tli at they go round their primaries in tlie directions
in which these turn on their axes, in planes diverging
but little from their equators, and in orbits nearly circular,
there are several significant traits which must not be
passed over.

One of them is that each set of satellites repeats in
miniature the relations of the planets to the Sun, both in
certain respects above# named and in the order of their sizes.
On progressing from the outside of the Solar System to its
centre, we see that there are four large external planets,
and four internal ones which are comparatively small. A
like contrast holds between the outer and inner satellites
in every case. Among the four satellites of Jupiter, the
parallel is maintained as well as the comparative smallness
of the number allows : the two outer ones are the largest,
and the two inner ones the smallest. According to the
most recent observations made by Mr. Lassell, the like is
true of the four satellites of Uranus. In the case of
Saturn, who has eight secondary planets revolving round
him, the likeness is still more close in arrangement as in
number : the three outer satellites are large, the inner ones
small j and the contrasts of size are here much greater
between the largest, which is nearly as big as Mars, and
the smallest, which is with difficulty discovered even by
the best telescopes. But the analogy does not end here.
Just as with the planets, there is at first a general
increase of size on travelling inwards from Neptune and
Uranus, which do not differ very -widely, to Saturn, which
is much larger, and to Jupiter, which is the largest ; so of
the eight satellites of Saturn, the largest is not the outer-
most, but the outermost save two; so of Jupiter’s four
secondaries, the largest is the most remote but one. Now
these parallelisms are inexplicable by the theory of final
causes. For purposes of lighting, if tliis [be the presumed
object of these attendant bodies, it won. f have been far
better had the larger been the nearer ML^ present, their
remoteness renders them of less service ff§| i the smallest.

188

THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS.

To the Nebular Hypothesis, however, these analogies give
further support. They show the action of a common
physical cause. They imply a law of genesis, holding in
the secondary systems as in the primary system.

Still more instructive shall we find the distribution of
the satellites — their absence in some instances, and their
presence in other instances, in smaller or greater numbers.
The argument from design fails to account for this distri-
bution. Supposing it be granted that planets nearer the
Sun than ourselves, have no need of moons (though, con-
sidering that their nights are as dark, and, relatively to
their brilliant days, even darker than ours, the need seems
quite as great) — supposing this to be granted; how are we
to explain the fact that Uranus has but half as many
moons as Saturn, though he is at double the distance?
While, however, the current presumption is untenable,
the Nebular Hypothesis furnishes us with an explana-
tion. It enables us to predict where satellites will be
abundant and where they will be absent. The reasoning is
as follows.

In a rotating nebulous spheroid which is concentrating
into a planet, there are at work two antagonist mechanical
tendencies-— the centripetal and the centrifugal. While
the force of gravitation draws all the atoms of the spheroid
together, their tangential momentum is resolvable into two
parts, of which one resists gravitation. The ratio which
this centrifugal force bears to gravitation, varies, other
things equal, as the square of the velocity. Hence, the
aggregation of a rotating nebulous spheroid will be more
or less hindered by this resisting force, according as the
rate of rotation is high or low: the opposition, in equal
spheroids, being four times as great when the rotation
is twice as rapid; nine times as great when it is three
times as rapid ; and so on. Now the detachment of a ring
from a planet-forming body of nebulous matter, implies

THE NEBULAE HYPOTHESIS. IgQ

that at its equatorial zone tlie increasing centrifugal force
consequent on concentration has become so great as to
balance gravity. Whence it is tolerably obvious that the
detachment of rings will be most frequent from those
masses in which the centrifugal tendency bears the greatest
ratio to the gravitative tendency. Though it is not possible
to calculate what ratio these two tendencies had to each
other in the genetic spheroid which produced each planet,
it is possible to calculate where each was the greatest
and where the least. While it is true that the ratio which
centrifugal force now bears to gravity at the equator
of each planet/ differs widely from that which it bore
during the earlier stages of concentration ; and while it is
true that this change in the ratio/depending on the degree
of contraction each planet has undergone, has in no two
cases been the same; yet we ' may fairly conclude that
where the ratio is still the greatest, it has been the greatest
from the beginning. The satellite-forming tendency which
each planet had, will he approximately indicated by the
proportion now existing in it between the aggregating
power, and the power that has opposed aggregation. On
making the requisite calculations, a remarkable harmony
with this inference comes out. The following table shows
what fraction the centrifugal force is of the centripetal force
in every case ; and the relation which that fraction bears
to the number of satellites.*

Mercury.

Venus.

Earth.

Mars.

Jupiter.

Saturn.

Uranus.

1

1

1

1

1

1

1 /

300

253

289

1

Satellite.

127

2

Satellites.

11-4

4

Satellites.

6-4

8

Satellites,
and three
rings.

109

4 :•

Satellites.

Thus taking as our standard ,of comparison the Earth
with its one moon, we see that Mercury, in which the
centrifugal force is relatively less, has no moon. Mars, in
* The comparative statement here given differs, slightly in most cases

140

THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS,

which. it is relatively much greater, lias two moons. Jupiter,
in which it is far greater, lias four moons. • Uranus, in
which it is greater still, lias certainly four, and more if
Herschel was right. Saturn, in which it is the greatest,
being nearly one-sixth of gravity, has, including his rings,
eleven attendants. The only instance in which there is
nonconformity with observation, is that of Venus. Here
it appears that the centrifugal force is relatively greater
than in the Earth ; and, according to the hypothesis,
Venus ought to have a satellite. Respecting this anomaly
several remarks are to be made. Without putting any
faith in the alleged discovery of a satellite of Venus
(repeated at intervals by five different observers), it may
yet be contended that as the satellites of Mars eluded

and in one ease largely, from the statement included in this essay as
originally published in 1858. As then given the table ran thus ; —

Mercury. Venus. Earth. Mars. Jupiter. Saturn. Uranus.

4 8 4 (or 6 ae*

Satellites. Satellites, 'cording to

and three Herschel),

rings.

The calculations ending with these figures were made •while the Sun'. 3
distance was still estimated at 95 millions of miles. Of course the reduction
afterwards established in the estimated distance, entailing, as it did, changes
in the factors which entered into the calculations, affected the results;
and, though it was unlikely that the relations stated would be materially
changed, it was needful to have the calculations made afresh. Mr. Lynn has
been good enough to undertake this task, and the figures given in the text
are his. In the case of Mars a large error in my calculation had arisen from
accepting Arago’s statement of his density (0*95), which proves to be some
tiring like double what it should be. Here a curious incident may be named.
When, in 1S77, it was discovered that Mars has two satellites, though,
according to my hypothesis, it seemed that he should have none, my faith
in it received a shock; and since that time I have occasionally considered
whether the fact is in any way reconcilable with the hypothesis. But now
the proof afforded by Mr. Lynn that my calculation contained a wrong factor,
disposes of the difficulty— nay, changes the objection to a verification. It
turns out that, according to the hypothesis, Mars ought to have satellites ;
and, further, that he ought to have a number intermediate between 1 and 4.

THE NEBULAE HYPOTHESIS. ] 41

observation up to 1877, a satellite of Terms may have
eluded observation up to the present time. Merely naming
this as possible, but not probable, a consideration of more
weight is that the period of rotation of Terms is but
indefinitely fixed, and that a small diminution in the
estimated angular velocity of her equator would bring the
result into congruity with the hypothesis. Further, it may
be remarked that not exact, but only general, congruity is
to be expected ; since the process of condensation of each
planet from nebulous matter can scarcely be expected to
have gone on with absolute uniformity : the angular
velocities of the superposed strata of nebulous matter
probably differed from one another in degrees unlike
in each case; and such differences would affect the satellite-
forming tendency. Bub without making much of these
possible explanations of the discrepancy, the correspondence
between inference and fact which we find in so many
planets, may be held to afford strong support to the
Nebular Hypothesis.

Certain more special peculiarities of the satellites must
be mentioned as suggestive. One of them is the relation
between the period of revolution and that of rotation.
No discoverable purpose is served by making the Moon go
round its axis in the same time that it goes round the
Earth: for our convenience, a more rapid axial motion
would have been equally good; and for any possible inhab-
itants of the Moon, much better. Against the alternative
supposition, that the equality occurred by accident, the
probabilities are, as Laplace says, infinity to one. But to
this arrangement, which is explicable neither as the result
of design nor of chance, the Nebular Hypothesis furnishes
a clue. In his Exposition du Systems du Monde, Laplace
shows, by reasoning too detailed to be here repeated, that
under the circumstances such a relation of movements
would be likely to establish itself.

Among Jupiter’s satellites, which severally display these

142

THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS.

same synchronous movements., there also exists a still more
remarkable relation. “If the mean angular velocity of the
first satellite be added to twice that of the third, the sum
will be equal to three times that of the second ; ” and
“from this it results that the situations of any two of them
being given, that of the third can be found.” Now here, as
before, no conceivable advantage results. Neither in this
case can the connexion have been accidental: the proba-
bilities are infinity to one to the contrary. But again,
according to Laplace, the Nebular Hypothesis supplies a
solution. Are not these significant facts ?

Most significant fact of all, however, is that presented
by the rings of Saturn. As Laplace remarks, they are, as
it were, still extant witnesses of the genetic process he
propounded. Here wc have, continuing permanently,
forms of aggregation like those through which each planet
and satellite once passed ; and their movements are just
what, in conformity with the hypothesis, they should, bo.
“ La duree de la rotation d’une planete doit done etre,
d’apres cette hypothese, plus petite que la duree de la
revolution du corps le plus voisiu qui circule autour d’elle,”
says Laplace. And he then points out tlmt the time of
Saturn’s rotation is to that of his rings as 427 to 438 — an
amount of difference such as was to be expected.*

Respecting Saturn’s rings it may be further remarked
that the place of their occurrence is not withou t significance.

* Sinco this paragraph, was fivst published, the discovery that Mars has
two satellites revolving round him in periods shorter than that of his rotation,
has shown that the implication on which Laplace here insists is general
only, and not absolute. Were it a necessary assumption that all parts of a
concentrating nebulous spheroid revolve with the same angular velocities,
the oxception would appear an inexplicable one ; but if, as suggested in a
preceding section, it is inferable from the process of formation of a nebulous
spheroid, that its outer strata will move round the general axis with higher
angular velocities than the inner ones, there follows a possible interpretation.
Though, during the earlier stages of concentration, while the nebulous
, matter, and especially its peripheral portions, are very rare, the effects of
fluid-friction will be too small to change greatly such differences of angular

THE NEBULAE HYPOTHESIS.

143

Bings detached early in the process of concentration, con-
sisting of gaseous matter having extremely little power of
cohesion, can have little ability to resist the disruptive
forces due to imperfect balance ; and, therefore, collapse
into satellites. A ring of a denser kind, whether solid,
liquid, or composed of small discrete masses (as Saturn’s
rings are now concluded to be), we can expect will be formed
only near the body of a planet when it has reached so
late a stage of concentration that its equatorial portions
contain matters capable of easy precipitation into liquid
and, finally, solid forms. Even then it can be produced
only under special conditions . Graining a rapidly-increasing
preponderance as the gravitative force does during the
closing' stages of concentration, the centrifugal force cannot,
in ordinary eases, cause the leaving behind of rings when
the mass has become dense. Only where the centrifugal
force has all along been very great, and remains powerful
to the last, as in Saturn, can we expect dense rings to
be formed.

We find, then, that besides those most conspicuous pecu-
liarities of the Solar System which first suggested the theory
of its evolution, there are many minor ones pointing in
the same direction. Were there no other evidence, these
mechanical arrangements would, considered in their totality,
go far to establish the Nebular Hypothesis.

From the mechanical arrangements of the Solar System,
turn we now to its physical characters ; and, first, let us con-
sider the inferences deducible from relative specific gravities,
velocities as exist ; yet, when concentration has reached its last stages, and
the matter is passing from the gaseous into the liquid and solid states, and
when also the convection- currents have beeome common to the whole mass
(which they probably at first are not), the angular velocity of the peripheral
portion will gradually be assimilated to that of the interior; and it becomes
comprehensible that in the ease of Mars the peripheral portion, more and
more dragged back by the internal mass, lost part of its velocity during the
interval between the formation of the innermost satellite and the arrival at
the final form.

144

THE NEBULAE- HYPOTHESIS.

The fact that, speaking generally, the denser planets are
the nearer to the Sim, has been by some considered as
adding another to the many indications of nebular origin.
Legitimately assuming that the outermost parts of a rotating
nebulous spheroid, in its earlier stages of concentration,
must be comparatively rare ; and that the increasing density
which the whole mass acquires as it contracts, must hold
of the outermost parts as well as the rest ; it is argued
that the rings successively detached will be more and more
dense, and will form planets of higher and higher specific
gravities. But passing over other objections, this explana-
tion is quite inadequate to account for the facts. Using
the Earth as a standard of comparison, the relative densities
run thus

Neptune. Uranus. Saturn. Jupiter. Mars. Barth. Venus. Mercury. Sun.

0-17 0-25 0-11 0-23 0-45 1*00 0-92 1-20 025

Two insurmountable objections are presented by this
series. The first is, that the progression is but a broken
one. Neptune is denser than Saturn, which, by the hypo-
thesis, it ought not to be. Uranus is denser than Jupiter,
which it ought not to be. Uranus is denser than Saturn,
and the Earth is denser than Venus-— facts which not only
give no countenance to, but directly contradict, the alleged
explanation. The second objection, still more manifestly
fatal, is the low specific gravity of the Sun. If, when the
matter of the Sun filled the orbit of Mercury, its state of
aggregation was such that the detached ring formed a
planet having a specific gravity equal to that of iron ; then
the Sim itself, now that it has concentrated, should have a
specific gravity much greater than that of iron ; whereas
its specific gravity is only half as much again as that of
water. Instead of being far denser than the nearest
planet, it is but one-fifth as dense.

While these anomalies render untenable the position that
the. relative specific gravities of the planets are direct indi-
cations of nebular condensation; it by no means follows

145

THE NEBULAE HYPOTHESIS.

that they negative it. Several causes may "be assigned for
these unlikenesses 1. Differences among the planets in
respect of the elementary substances composing them ; or
in the proportions of such elementary substances, if they
contain the same kinds. 2. Differences among them in
respect of the quantities of matter they contain ; for, other
things equal, the mutual gravitation of molecules will make
a larger mass denser than a smaller. 8. Differences of
temperatures; for, other things equal, those having higher
temperatures will have lower specific gravities. 4. Differ-
ences of physical states, as being gaseous, liquid, or solid;
or, otherwise, differences in the relative amounts of the
solid, liquid, and gaseous matter they contain.

It is quite possible, and we may indeed say probable,
that all these causes come into play, and that they take
various shares in the production of the several results. But
difficulties stand in the way of definite conclusions. Never-
theless, if we revert to the hypothesis of nebular genesis,
we are furnished with partial explanations if nothing more.

In the cooling of celestial bodies several factors are
concerned. The first and simplest is the one illustrated at
every fire-side by the rapid blackening of little cinders which
fall into the ashes, in contrast with the long-continued
redness of big lumps. This factor is the relation between
increase of surface and increase of content : surfaces, in
similar bodies, increasing as the squares of the dimensions
while contents increase as their cubes. Hence, on com-
paring the Earth with Jupiter, whose diameter is about
eleven times that of the Earth, it results that while his
surface is 125 times as great, his content is 1890 times as
great. Now even (supposing we assume like temperatures
and like densities) if the only effect were that through a
given area of surface eleven times more matter had to be
cooled in the one ease than in the other, there would be a
vast difference between the times occupied in concentration.
But, in virtue of a second factor, the difference would be

146

THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS.

much greater than that consequent on these geometrical
relations. The escape of heat from a cooling mass is
effected by conduction, or by convection, or by both. In
a solid it is wholly by conduction ; in a. liquid or gas the
chief part is played by convection — by circulating currents
which continually transpose the hotter and cooler parts.
Now in fluid spheroids — gaseous, or liquid, or mixed — ■
increasing size entails an increasing obstacle to cooling,
consequent on the increasing distances to be travelled
by the circulating currents. Of course the relation is not a
simple one : the velocities of the currents will be unlike.
It is manifest, however, that in a sphere of eleven times the
diameter, the transit of matter from centime to surface and
back from surface to centre, will take a much longer time j
even if its movement is unrestrained. But its movement
is, in such cases as we are considering, greatly restrained.
In. a rotating spheroid there come into play retarding
forces augmenting with the velocity of rotation. In such
a spheroid the respective portions of matter (supposing them
equal in their angular velocities round the axis, which they
will tend more and more to become as tlio density increases),
must vary in their absolute velocities according to their
distances from the axis ; and each portion cannot have its
distance from the axis changed by circulating currents,
which it must continually be, without loss or gain in its
quantity of motion : through the medium of fluid friction,
force must he expended, now in increasing its motion and
now in retarding its motion. Hence, when the larger
spheroid has also a higher velocity of rotation, the relative
slowness of the circulating currents, and the consequent
retardation of cooling, must be much greater than is implied
by the extra distances to he travelled.

And now observe the correspondence between inference
and fact. In the first place, if we compare the group of
the great planets, Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus, with the
group of the small planets. Mars, Earth, Venus, and Mercury,

THE NEBULAE HYPOTHESIS.

147

we see that low density goes along with great size and great
velocity of rotation, and that high density goes along with
small size and small velocity of rotation. In the second
place, we are shown this relation still more clearly if we
compare the extreme instances- — Saturn and Mercury. The
special contrast of these two, like the general contrast of the
groups, points to the truth that low density, like the satellite-
forming tendency, is associated with the ratio borne by
centrifugal force to gravity ; for in the case of Saturn with
his many satellites and least density, centrifugal force at
the equator is nearly -|th of gravity, whereas in Mercury
with no satellite and greatest density centrifugal force is
but ^(jtk of gravity.

There are, however, certain factors which, working in an
opposite way, qualify and complicate these effects. Other
things equal, mutual gravitation among the parts of a large
mass will cause a greater evolution of heat than is similarly
caused in a small mass; and the resulting difference of
temperature will tend to produce more rapid dissipation of
heat. To this must be added the greater velocity of the
circulating currents which the intenser forces at work in
larger spheroids will produce — a contrast made still greater
by the relatively smaller retardation by friction to which the
more voluminous currents are exposed. In these causes,
joined with causes previously indicated, we~ may recognize
a probable explanation of the otherwise anomalous fact
that the Sun, though having a thousand times the mass of
Jupiter, has yet reached as advanced a stage of concentra-
tion, . Tor the force of gravity in the Sun, which at his
surface is some ten times that at the surface of Jupiter,
must expose his central parts to a pressure relatively very
intense; producing, during contraction, a relatively rapid
genesis of heat. Audit is further to be remarked that,
though the circulating currents in the Sun have far greater
distances to travel, yet since his rotation is relatively so
slow that the angular velocity of his substance is but about

148

THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS.

one-sixtieth, of that of Jupiter’s substance, the resulting
obstacle to circulating currents is relatively small, and the
escape of heat far less retarded. Here, too, we may note
that in the co-operation of these factors, there seems a
reason for the greater concentration reached by Jupiter
than by Saturn, though Saturn is the elder as well as the
smaller of the two ; for at the same time that the gravita-
tive force in Jupiter is more than twice as great as in
Saturn, his velocity of rotation is very little greater, so
that the opposition of the centrifugal force to the centri-
petal is not much more than half.

But now, not judging more than roughly of the effects
of these several factors, co-operating in various ways and
degrees, some to aid concentration and others to resist it,
it is sufficiently manifest that, other things equal, the larger
nebulous spheroids, longer in losing their heat, will more
slowly reach high specific gravities ; and that where the
contrasts in size are so immense as those between the greater
and the smaller planets, the smaller may have reached
relatively high specific gravities when the greater have
reached but relatively low ones. Further, it appears that
such qualification of the process as results from the more
rapid genesis of heat in the larger masses, will he counter-
vailed where high velocity of rotation greatly impedes the
circulating currents. Thus interpreted then, the various
specific gravities of the planets may he held to furnish
further evidences supporting the Nebular Hypothesis.

Increase of density and escape of heat are correlated
phenomena, and hence in the foregoing section, treating of
the respective densities of the celestial bodies in connexion
with nebular condensation, much has been said and implied
respecting the accompanying genesis and dissipation of
heat. Quite apart, however, from the foregoing arguments
and inferences, there is to be noted the fact that in the
present temperatures of the celestial bodies at large we find

THE NEBULAE HYPOTHESIS.

149

additional supports to the hypothesis ; and these, too, of
the most substantial character. For if, as is implied above,
heat must inevitably be generated by the aggregation of
diffused matter, we ought to find in all the heavenly bodies,
either present high temperatures or marks of past high
temperatures. This we do, in the places and in the degrees
which the hypothesis requires.

Observations showing that as we descend below the
Earth’s surface there is a progressive increase of heat,
joined with the conspicuous evidence furnished by vol-
canoes, necessitate the conclusion that the temperature is
very high at great depths. Whether, as some believe, the
interior of the Earth is still molten, or whether, as Sir
William Thomson contends, it must be solid; there is agree~
ment in the inference that its heat is intense. And it has
been further shown that the rate at which the temperature
increases on descending below the surface, is such as would
be found in a mass which had been cooling for an indefinite
period. The Moon, too, shows us, by its corrugations and
its conspicuous extinct volcanoes, that in it there has been
a process of refrigeration and contraction, like that which
has gone on in the Earth. There is no teleological explana-
tion of these facts. The frequent destructions of life by
earthquakes and volcanoes, imply, rather, that it would have
been better had the Earth been created with a low internal
temperature. But if we contemplate the facts in con-
nexion with the Nebular Hypothesis, we see that this still-
continued high internal heat is one of its corollaries. The
Earth must have passed through the gaseous and the
molten conditions before it became solid, and must for an
almost infinite period by its internal heat continue to bear
evidence of this origin.

The group of giant planets furnishes remarkable evidence.
The a priori inference drawn above, that great size joined
with relatively high ratio of centrifugal force to gravity
must greatly retard aggregation, and must thus, by check-

150 THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS*

ing the genesis and dissipation of heat, make the process
of cooling a slow one, lias of late years received verifica-
tions from inferences drawn a posteriori ; so that now the
current conclusion among astronomers is that in physical
condition the great planets are in stages midway between
that of the Earth and that of the Sun. The fact that the
centre of Jupiter’s disc is twice or thrice as bright as his
periphery, joined with the facts that he seems to radiate
more light than is accounted for by reflection of the Sun’s
rays, and that his spectrum shows the “ red-star lino ”, are
taken as evidences of luminosity ; while the immense and
rapid perturbations in his atmosphere, far greater than
could be caused by heat received from the Sun, as well as
the formation of spots analogous to those of the Sun, which
also, like those of the Sun, show a higher rate of rotation
near the equator than further from it, are held to imply high
internal temperature. Thus in Jupiter, as also in Saturn, we
find states which, not admitting of any teleological explana-
tions (for they manifestly exclude the possibility of life),
admit of explanations derived from the Nebular Hypothesis.

But the argument from temperature does not end here.
There remains to be noticed a more conspicuous and still
more significant fact. If the Solar System was produced
by the concentration of diffused matter, which evolved
heat while gravitating into its present dense form; then
there is an obvious implication. Other things equal, the
latest-formed mass will be the latest in cooling — will, for
an almost infinite time, possess a greater heat than the
earlier-formed ones. Other things equal, the largest mass
will, because of its superior aggregative force, become
hotter than the others, and radiate more intensely. Other
things equal, the largest mass, notwithstanding the
higher temperature it reaches, will, in consequence of its
relatively small surface, be the slowest in losing its evolved
heat. And hence, if there is one mass which was not only
formed after the rest, but exceeds them enormously in

THE NEBULAS HYPOTHESIS.

151

size, it follows that this one will reach an intensity of
incandescence far beyond that reached by the rest; and
will continue in a state of intense incandescence long after
the rest have cooled. Such a mass wo have in the Sun. It
is a corollary from the Nebular Hypothesis, that the matter
forming the Sun assumed its present integrated shape
at a period much more recent than that at which the planets
became definite bodies. The quantity of matter contained
in the Sun is nearly five million times that contained in
the smallest planet, and above a thousand times that
contained in the largest. And while, from the enormous
gravitative force of his parts to their common centre, the
evolution of heat has been intense, the facilities of radia-
tion have been relatively small. Hence the still-continued
high temperature. Just that condition of the central body
which is a necessary inference from the Nebular Hypo-
thesis, we find actually existing in the Sun.

[The paragraph which here follows, though it contains
some questionable propositions, I reproduce just as it stood
when first published in 1858, for reasons which will pre-
sently be apparent.]

It may be well to consider more closely, what is the
probable condition of the Sun’s surface. Round the globe
of incandescent molten substances, thus conceived to form
the visible body of the Sun [which in conformity with the
argument in a previous section, now transferred to the
Addenda, was inferred to be hollow and filled with gaseous
matter at high tension] there is known to exist a volumin-
ous atmosphere : the inferior brilliancy of the Sun’s border,
and the appearances during a total eclipse, alike show this.
What now must be the constitution of this atmosphere ?
At a temperature approaching a thousand times that of
molten iron, which is the calculated temperature of the
solar surface, very many, if not all, of the substances we
know as solid, would become gaseous; and though the
Sun’s enormous attractive force must be a powerful check

152

THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS.

on tills tendency to assume the form of vapour, yet it
cannot he questioned that if the hotly of the Bun. consists
of molten substances, some of them must be constantly
undergoing evaporation. That the dense gases thus con-
tinually being generated will form the entire mass of the
solar atmosphere, is not probable. If anything is to be
inferred, either from the Nebular Hypothesis, or from the
analogies supplied by the planets, it must be concluded
that the outermost part of the solar atmosphere consists of
what are called permanent gases — gases that are not con-
densible into fluid even at low temperatures. If we consider
what must have been the state of things here, when the
surface of the Earth was molten, we shall see that round the
still; molten surface of the Bun, there probably exists a
stratum of dense aeriform matter, made up of sublimed
metals and metallic compounds, and above this a stratum
of comparatively rare medium analogous to air. What
now will happen with these two strata ? Did they both
consist of permanent gases, they could not remain separate ;
according to a well-known law, they would eventually form
a homogeneous mixture. But this will by no means happen
when the lower stratum consists of matters that arc gaseous
only at excessively high temperatures. Given off from a
molten surface, ascending, expanding, and cooling, these
will presently reach a limit of elevation above which they
cannot exist as vapour, but must condense and precipitate.
Meanwhile the upper stratum, habitually charged with its
quantum of these denser matters, as our air with its quantum
of water, and ready to deposit them on any depression of
temperature, must be habitually unable to take up any-
more of the lower stratum ; and therefore this lower stratum
will remain quite distinct from it.*

Considered in their ensemble, the several groups of evi-
dences assigned amount almost to proof. We have seen

* I was about to suppress part of the above paragraph, written before the

THE NEBULAE HYPOTHESIS.

353

that, when critically examined, the speculations of late
years current respecting the nature of the nebulas, commit
their promulgators to sundry absurdities; while, on the other
hand, we see that the various appearances these nebula)
present, are explicable as different stages in the precipi-
tation and aggregation of diffused matter. We find that
the immense majority of comets (i.e. omitting the periodic
ones), by their physical constitution, their immensely-
extended and variously-directed paths, the distribution of
those paths, and their manifest structural relation to the
Solar System, bear testimony to the past existence of that
system in a nebulous form. Not only do those obvious
peculiarities in the motions of the planets which first sug-
gested the Nebular Hypothesis, supply proofs of it, but on
closer examination we discover, in the slightly-diverging
inclinations of their orbits, in their various rates of rotation,
and their differently-directed axes of rotation, that the
planets yield us yet further testimony; while the satellites,

science of solar physics had taken shape, because o£ certain physical difficul-
ties which stand in the way of its argument, when, on looking into recent
astronomical works, I found that the hypothesis it sets forth respecting the
Sun's structure has kinships to the several hypotheses since set forth fay
Zollner, Faye, and Young. I have therefore decided to let it stand as it
originally did.

The contemplated partial suppression just named, was prompted by recog-
nition of the truth that to effect mechanical stability the gaseous interior of
the Sun must have a density at least equal to that of the molten shell (greater,
indeed, at the centre) ; and this seems to imply a specific gravity higher than
that which he possesses. It may, indeed, be that the unknown elements
V which spectrum analysis shows to exist in the Sun, are metals of very low

specific gravities, and that, existing in large proportion with other of the
lighter metals, they may form a molten shell not denser than is implied by
the facts. But this can be regarded as nothing more than a possibility.

No need, however, has arisen for either relinquishing or holding but loosely
the associated conclusions respecting the constitution of the photosphere and
its envelope. Widely speculative as seemed these suggested corollaries from
the Nebular Hypothesis when set forth in 1858, and quite at variance with
the beliefs then current, they proved to be not ill-founded. At the close of
1850, there came the discoveries of Kirchhoff, proving the existence of
various metallic vapours in the Sun’s atmosphere.

154 THE nebulae hypothesis.

by sundry traits, and especially by their occurrence in
greater or less abundance where the hypothesis implies
greater or less abundance, confirm this testimony. By
tracing out the process of planetary condensation, we are
led to conclusions respecting the physical states of planets
which explain their anomalous specific gravities. Once
more, it turns out that what is inferable from the Nebular
Hypothesis respecting the temperatures of celestial bodies,
is just what observation establishes; and that both the
absolute and the relative temperatures of the Sun and
planets are thus accounted for. When we contemplate
these various evidences in their totality — when we observe
that, by the Nebular Hypothesis, the leading phenomena of
the Solar System, and the heavens in general, are explicable ;
and when, on the other hand, we consider that the current
cosmogony is not only without a single fact to stand on,
but is at variance with all our positive knowledge of
Nature, we see that the proof becomes overwhelming.

It remains only to point out that while the genesis of the
Solar System, and of countless other systems like it, is thus
rendered comprehensible, the ultimate mystery continues
as great as ever. The probl era of existence is not solved :
it is simply removed further back. The Nebular Hypothesis
throws no light on the origin of diffused matter; and
diffused matter as much needs accounting for as concrete
matter. The genesis of an atom is not easier to conceive
than the genesis of a planet. Nay, indeed, so far from
making the Universe less a mystery than before, it makes
it a greater mystery. Creation by manufacture is a much
lower thing than creation by evolution. A man can put
together a machine ; but he cannot make a machine
develop itself . That our harmonious universe once existed
potentially as formless diffused matter, and has slowly
grown into its present organized state, is a far more aston-
ishing fact than would have been its formation after the
artificial method vulgarly supposed. Those who hold it

THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS.

loo

legitimate to argue from phenomena to noumena, may
rightly contend that the Nebular Hypothesis implies a Hirst
Cause as much transcending “the mechanical God of
Haley / 5 as this does the fetish of the savage.

ADDENDA.

Speculative as is much of the foregoing essay, it
appears undesirable to include in it anything still more
speculative. For this reason I have decided to set forth
separately some views concerning the genesis of the
so-called elements during nebular condensation/ and con-
cerning the accompanying physical effects. At the same
time it has seemed best to detach from the essay some of
the more debatable conclusions originally contained in it ;
so that its general argument may not be needlessly
implicated with them. These new portions, together with
the old portions which re-appear more or less modified,
1 here append in a series of notes.

Note I. For the belief that the so-called elements are
compound there are both special reasons and general
reasons. Among the special may be named the parallelism
between allotropy and isomerism; the numerous lines in
the spectrum of each element; and the cyclical law of
Newlands and Mendel jeff, Of tho more general reasons,
which, as distinguished from these chemical or chemieo-

IqQ the nebulae hypothesis.

physical ones, may fitly he called cosmical, the following
are the chief.

The general law of evolution, if it. does not actually
involve the conclusion that the so-called elements are
compounds, yet affords a priori ground for suspecting that
they are such. The implication is that, while the matter
composing the Solar System has progressed physically
from that relatively-homogeneous state which, it had as
a nebula to that relatively-heterogeneous state presented
by Sun, planets, and satellites, it has also progressed
chemically, from the relatively-homogeneous state in which
it was composed of one or a few types of matter, to that
relatively-heterogeneous state in which it is composed of
many types of matter very diverse in their properties.
This deduction from the law which holds throughout the
cosmos as now known to us, would have much weight even
were it unsupported by induction ; but a survey of chemical
phenomena at large discloses several groups of inductive
evidences supporting it.

The first is that since the cooling of the Earth reached an
advanced stage, the components of its crust have been ever
increasing in heterogeneity. When the so-called elements,
originally existing in a dissociated state, united into oxides,
acids, and other binary compounds, the total number of
different substances was immensely augmented, the now
substances were more complex than the old, and their pro-
perties were more varied. That is, the assemblage became
more heterogeneous in its kinds, in the composition of each
kind, and in the range of chemical characters. When, at a
later period, there arose salts and other compounds of similar
degrees of complexity, there was again an increase of
heterogeneity, alike in the aggregate and in its members.
And when, still later, matters classed as organic became
possible, the multiformity was yet further augmented in
kindred ways. If, then, chemical evolution, so far as we
can trace it, has been from the homogeneous to the hetero-

THE NEBULAE HYPOTHESIS,

157

geneous, may we not fairly suppose tliat it lias been so
from the beginning ? If, from late stages in tlie Earth's
history, we run back, and find the lines of chemical
evolution continually converging, until they bring us to
bodies which we cannot decompose, may we not suspect
that, could we run back these lines still further, we should
come to still decreasing heterogeneity in the number
and nature of the substances, until we reached something
like homogeneity ?

A parallel argument may be derived from consideration
of the affinities and stabilities of chemical compounds.
Beginning with the complex nitrogenous bodies out of
which living things are formed, and which, in the history of
the Earth, are the most modern, at the same time that they
are the most heterogeneous, we see that the affinities and
stabilities of these are extremely small. Their molecules
do not enter bodily into union with those of other sub-
stances so as to form more complex compounds still, and
their components often fail to hold together under ordinary
conditions. A stage lower in degree of composition we
come to the vast assemblage of oxy-liydro-carbons, numbers
of which show many and decided affinities, and are stable
at common temperatures. Passing to the inorganic group,
we are shown by the salts &c. strong affinities between
their components and unions which are, in many cases,
not very easily broken. And then when we come to the
oxides, acids, and other binary compounds, w r e see that in
many cases the elements of which they are formed, when
brought into the presence of one another under favourable
conditions, unite with violence ; and that many of their
unions cannot be dissolved by heat alone. If, then, as we
go back from the most, modern and most complex substances
to the most ancient and simplest substances, we see, on the
average, a great increase in affinity and stability, it results
that if the same law holds with the simplest substances
known to us, the components of these, if they are compound,

IDS'

THE NEBULAE HYPOTHESIS.

maybe assumed to have united with affinities far more
intense than any we have experience of, and to cling together
with tenacities far exceeding the tenacities with which
chemistry acquaints us. Hence the existence of a class of
substances which are nndecomposable and therefore ' seem
simple, appears to be an implication ; and the corollary is
that these were formed during early stages of terrestrial
concentration, under conditions of heat and pressure which
we cannot now parallel.

Yet another support for the belief that the so-called
elements are compounds, is derived from a comparison of
them, considered as an aggregate ascending iu their mole-
cular weights, with the aggregate of bodies known to be
compound, similarly considered in their ascending molecular
weights. Contrast the binary compounds as a class with
the quaternary compounds as a class. The molecules
constituting oxides (whether alkaline or acid or neutral)
chlorides, sulphurets, &c. are relatively small ; and, com-
bining with great avidity, form stable compounds. On
the other hand, the molecules constituting nitrogenous
bodies are relatively vast and are chemically inert ; and
such combinations as their simpler types enter into, cannot
withstand disturbing forces. Now a like difference is seen
if we contrast with one another the so-called elements.
Those of relatively-low molecular weights — oxygen, hy-
drogen, potassium, sodium, &e., — show great readiness to
unite among themselves; and, indeed, many of them
cannot be prevented from uniting under ordinary conditions.
Contrariwise, under ordinary conditions the substances of
high m oleeular weights — the “noble metals ” — are indifferent
to other substances ; and such compounds as they do form
under conditions specially adjusted, are easily destroyed.
Thus as, among the bodies we know to be compound,
increasing molecular weight is associated with the appear-
ance of certain characters, and as, among the bodies we
class as simple, increasing molecular weight is associated

THE NEBULAE HYPOTHESIS. 159

witli tlio appearance of similar characters, the composite
nature of the elements is in another way pointed to.

There has to be added one further class of phenomena,
congruous with those above named, which here specially
concerns us. Looking generally at chemical unions, we see
that the heat evolved usually decreases as the degree of
composition, and consequent massiveness, of the molecules,
increases. In the first place, we have the fact that during
the formation of simple compounds the heat evolved is
much greater than that which is evolved during the
formation of complex compounds : the elements, when
uniting with one another, usually give out much heat;
while, when the compounds they form are recompounded,
but little heat is given out ; and, as shown by the
experiments of Prof. Andrews, the heat given out during
the union of acids and bases is habitually smaller where
the molecular weight of the base is greater. Then, in the
second place, we see that among the elements themselves,
the unions of those having low molecular weights result in
far more heat than do the unions of those having high
molecular weights. If we proceed on the supposition that
the so-called elements are compounds, and if this law, if
not universal, holds of undecomposable substances as of
decomposable, then there are two implications. The one
is that those compoundings and recompoundings by which
the elements were formed, must have been accompanied
by degrees of heat exceeding any degrees of heat known to
us. The other is that among these compoundings and
recompoundings themselves, those by which the small-
moleeuled elements were formed produced more intense
heat than those by which the large-moleculed elements
were formed : the elements formed by the final recom-
poundings being necessarily later in' origin, and at the
same time less stable, than the earlier-formed ones.

Note II. May we from these propositions, and especially

160

THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS.

from the last, draw any conclusions respecting the evolution
of heat during nebular condensation ? And do such con-
clusions affect' in any way the conclusions now current ?

In the first place, it seems inferable from physico-
chemical facts at large, that only through the instrumen-
tality of those combinations which formed the elements, did
the concentration of diffused nebulous matter into concrete
masses become possible. If we remember that hydrogen
and oxygen in their uncombined states oppose, the one an
insuperable and the other an almost insuperable, resistance
to liquefaction, while when combined the compound
assumes the liquid state with facility, we may suspect that
in like manner the simpler types of matter out of which
the elements were formed, could not have been reduced even
to such degrees of density as the known gases show us,
without what we may call proto-chemical unions: the
implication being that after the heat resulting from each
of such proto-chemical unions had escaped, mutual gravita-
tion of the parts was able to produce further condensation
of the nebulous mass.

If we thus distinguish between the two sources of heat
accompanying nebular condensation — the heat due to proto-
chemical combinations and that due to the contraction caused
by gravitation (both of them, however, being interpretable
as consequent on loss of motion), it maybe inferred that
they take different shares during the earlier and during* the
later stages of aggregation. It seems probable that while
the diffusion is great and the force of mutual gravitation
small, the chief source of heat is combination, of units of
matter, simpler than any known to ns, into such units of
matter as those we know ; while, conversely, when there
has been reached close aggregation, the chief source of
heat is gravitation, with consequent pressure and gradual
contraction. Supposing this t.o be so, let us ask what may
be inferred. If at the time when the nebulous spheroid
from which the Solar System resulted, filled the orbit of

TOE nebulae; hypothesis. 161

Neptune, it liacl reached such a degree of density as
enabled those units of matter ■which compose the sodium
molecules to enter into combination ; and if, in conformity
with the analogies above indicated, the evolved by
this proto-chemical combination was great compared with
the heats evolved by the chemical combinations known
tons; the implication is that the nebulous spheroid, in
the course of its contraction, would have to get rid of a
much larger quantity of heat than it would, did it commence
at any ordinary temperature and had only to lose the heat
consequent on contraction. That is to say, in estimating
the past period during which solar emission of heat has
been going on at a high rate, much must depend on
the initial temperature assumed; and this may have been
rendered intense by the proto-chemical changes which took
place in early stages.*

Respecting the future duration of the solar heat, there
must also be differences between the estimates made
according as we do or do not take into account the proto-
ehemical changes which possibly have still to take place.
True as it may be that the quantity of heat to be emitted

* Of course there remains the question whether, before the stage here
recognized, there had already been produced a high temperature by those
collisions of celestial masses which reduced the matter to a nebulous form. As
suggested in First Principles (§ 136 in the edition of 1862, and § 1S2 in sub-
sequent editions), there must, after there have been effected all those minor
dissolutions which follow evolutions, remain to be effected the dissolutions
: of the great bodies n and on which the minor evolutions and dissolutions
have taken place ; arc! it was argued that sueh dissolutions will be, at some
time or other, effected by those immense transformations of molar motion into
molecular motion, consequent on collisions : the argument being based on the
statement of Sir John Herschel, that in clusters of stars collisions must
inevitably occur. It may, however, be objected that though such a result
may be reasonably looked for in closely aggregated assemblages of stars, it
is difficult to conceive of its taking place throughout our Sidereal System at
large, the members of which, and their intervals, may be roughly figured as
pins-heads 50 miles apart. It would seem that something like an eternity
must elapse before, by ethereal resistance or other cause, these can be
brought into proximity great enough to make collisions probable.

162

TEE NEBULAE HYPOTHESIS .

is measured "by tlxe quantity of motion to be lost, and that,
this must be the same whether the approximation of the
molecules is effected by chemical unions, or by mutual
gravitation, or by both ; yet, evidently, everything must
turn on the degree of condensation supposed to be
eventually reached ; and this must in large measure depend
on the natures of the substances eventually formed. Though,
by spectrum-analysis, platinum has recently been detected
in the solar atmosphere, it seems clear that the metals of
low molecular weights greatly predominate; and supposing
the foregoing arguments to be valid, it may be inferred, as
not improbable, that the compoundings and recompoundings
by which the heavy-moleculed elements are produced, not
hitherto possible in large measure, will hereafter take
place ; and that, as a result, the Sun’s density will finally
become very great in comparison with what it is now. I
say “not hitherto possible in large measure”, because it is a
feasible supposition that they may be formed, and can con-
tinue to exist, only in certain outer parts of the Solar mass,
where the pressure is sufficiently great while the heat is not
too great. And if this be so, the implication is that the
interior body of the Sun, higher in temperature than its
peripheral layers, may consist wholly of the metals of low
atomic weights, and that this may be a part cause of his
low specific gravity ; and a further implication is that
when, in course of time, the internal temperature falls, the
heavy-moleculed elements, as they severally become capable
of existing in it, mayarise : the formation of each having an
evolution of heat as its concomitant.* If so, it would seem to
* The two sentences which, in the text, precede the asterisk, I have
introduced while these pages are standing in type : being led to do so by the
perusal of some notes kindly lent to me by Prof. Dewar, containing the out-
line of a lecture he gave at the Eoyal Institution during the session of 1880.
Discussing the conditions under which, if “ our so-called elements are com-
pounded of elemental matter ”, they may have been formed, Prof. Dewar,
arguing from the known habitudes of compound substances, concludes that
the formation is in each case a function of pressure, temperature, and nature
of the environing gases.

THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS. 168

follow tliat the amount of heat to he emitter! by the Sun,
and the length of the period during which the emission
will go on, must he taken as much greater than if the
Sun is supposed to he permanently constituted of the
elements now predominating in him, and to be capable
of only that degree of condensation which such com-
position permits.

Note III. Are the internal structures of celestial bodies
all the same, or do they differ ? And if they differ, can we,
from the process of nebular condensation, infer the con-
ditions under which they assume one or other character?
In the foregoing essay as originally published, these ques-
tions were discussed; and though the conclusions reached
cannot be sustained in the form given to them, they fore-
shadow conclusions which may, perhaps, be sustained.
Referring to the conceivable causes of unlike specific
gravities in the members of the solar system, it was said
that these might be —

“ 1. Differences between the kinds of matter or matters composing them.
2. Differences between the quantities of matter ; for, other things equal, the
mutual gravitation of atoms will make a large mass denser than a small
one. 8. Differences between the structures: the masses being either solid
or liquid throughout, or having central cavities filled with elastic aeriform
substance. Of these three conceivable causes, that commonly assigned is
the first, more or less modified by the second. 1 *

Written as this was before spectrum-analysis had made
its disclosures, no notice could of course be taken of the
way in which these conflict with the first of the foregoing
suppositions ; but after pointing out other objections to
it the argument continued thus:—

“ However, spite of these difficulties, the current hypothesis is, that the
Sun and planets, inclusive of the Earth, are either solid or liquid, or have
solid crusts with liquid nuclei.”*

* At the date of this passage the established teleology made it seem needful
to assume that all the planets are habitable, and that even beneath the
photosphere of the Sun there exists a dark body which may be the scene oi
life ; but since then, the influence of teleology has so far diminished that
this hypothesis can no longer be called the current one.

lGt

TIIB 2TEBULAB HYPOTHESIS.

After saying that the familiarity of this hypothesis must
not delude us into uncritical acceptance of if, but that if
any other hypothesis is physically possible it may reason-
ably be entertained, it was argued that by tracing out
the process of condensation in a nebulous spheroid, wo
are led to infer the eventual formation of a molten shell
with a nucleus consisting of gaseous matter at high tension.
The paragraph which then follows runs thus : —

“ But what,” it may be asked, “ will become of this gaseous nucleus when
exposed to the enormous gravitative pressure of a shell some thousands of
miles thick? How can aeriform matter withstand such a pressure?”
Very readily. It has been proved that, even when the heat generated by
compression is allowed to escape, some gases remain uncondensible by any
force we can produce. An unsuccessful attempt lately made in Vienna to
liquify oxygen, clearly shows this enormous resistance. The steel piston
employed was literally shortened by the pressure used; and yet the gas
remained unliquifedl If, then, the expansive force is thus immense when
the heat evolved is dissipated, what must it be when that heat is in great
measure detained, as in the case we are considering? Indeed the experi-
ences of M. Cogniard de Latour have shown that gases may, under pressure,
acquire the density of liquids while retaining the aeriform state, provided
the temperature continues extremely high. In such a case, every addition
to the heat is an addition to the repulsive power of the atoms : the
increased pressure itself generates an increased ability to resist; and this
remains true to whatever extent the compression is carried. Indood it is
a corollary from the persistence of force that if, under increasing pressure,
a gas retains all the heat evolved, its resisting force is < ibsolutelyiinlimite.il .
Hence the internal planetary structure we have described is as physically
stable a one as that commonly assumed.”

Had tliis paragraph, and the subsequent paragraphs, been
written five years later, when Prof. Andrews had published
an account of his researches, the propositions' they contain,
while rendered more specific and at the same time more
defensible, would perhaps have been freed from the
erroneous implication that the internal structure indicated
is an universal one. Let ns, while guided by Prof. Andrews’
results, consider what would probably be the successive
changes in a condensing’ nebulous spheroid.

Prof. Andrews has shown that for each kind of gaseous
matter there is a temperature above which no amount of

165

THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS,

pressure can cause liquefaction. The remark, marie a priori
in tli e above extract, “ that if, under increasing pressure,
a gas retains all tlie beat evolved, its resisting force is
absolutely unlimited”, Harmonizes with, the inductively-
reached result that if the temperature is not lowered to its
te critical point” a gas does not liquify, however great the
force applied. At the same time Prof, Andrews’ experi-
ments imply that, supposing the temperature to be lowered
to the point at which liquefaction becomes possible, then
liquefaction will take place where there is first reached the
required pressure. What are the corollaries in relation to
concentrating nebulous spheroids ?

Assume a spheroid of such size as will form one of the
inferior planets, and consisting externally of a voluminous,
cloudy atmosphere composed of the less condensible ele-
ments, and internally of metallic gases : such internal
gases being kept by convection-currents at temperatures
not very widely differing. And assume that continuous
radiation has brought the internal mass of metallic gases
down to the critical point of the most condensible. May
we not say that there is a size of the spheroid such that the
pressure will not be great enough to produce liquefaction
at any other place than the centre? or, in other words,
that in the process of decreasing temperature and increas-
ing pressure, the centre wild be the place at which the
combined conditions of pressure and temperature will be
first reached? If so, liquefaction, commencing at the
centre, will spread thence to the periphery ; and, in virtue
of the law that solids have higher melting points under
pressure than when free, it may be that solidification will
similarly, at a later stage, begin at the centre and progress
outwards : eventually producing, in that case, a state such'
as Sir William Thomson alleges exists in the Barth. But
now suppose that instead of such a spheroid, we assume
pne of, say, twenty or thirty times the mass; what will then
happen ? Notwithstanding convection-currents, the tem-

1G6

THE NEBULAE HYPOTHESIS.

perature at tlie centre must always be higher tlian else-
where; and in tlic process of cooling the "critical point ”
of temperature will sooner be readied in tlie outer parts.
Though the requisite pressure will not exist near Lite
surface/ there is evidently, in a large spheroid, a depth
below the surface at which the pressure will be great
enough, if the temperature is sufficiently low. Hence it
is inferable that somewhere between centre and surface in
the supposed larger spheroid, there will arise that state
described by Prof. Andrews, in which " flickering stake ”
of liquid float in gaseous matter of equal density. Aud it
may be inferred that gradually, as the process goes on,
these stake will become more abundant while the gaseous
interspaces diminish; until, eventually, the liquid becomes
continuous. Thus there will result a molten shell contain-
ing a gaseous nucleus equally dense noth itself at their
surface of contact and more dense at the centre— a molten
shell which will slowly thicken by additions to both exterior
and interior.

That a solid crust will eventually form on this molten
shell may be reasonably concluded. To the demurrer that
solidification cannot commence at the surface, because
the solids formed would sink, 'there are two replies. The
first is that various metals expand while solidifying, and
therefore would float. The second is that since the envelope
of the supposed spheroid would consist of the gases and
noil-metallic elements, compounds of these with the metals
and with one another would continually accumulate on the
molten shell; and the crust, consisting of oxides, chlorides,
sulpliurets, and the rest, having much less specific gravity
than the molten shell, would be readily supported by it.

Clearly a planet thus constituted would be in an unstable
state. Always it would remain liable to a catastrophe
resulting from change in its gaseous nucleus. If, under
some condition of pressure and temperature eventually
reached, the components of this suddenly entered into one

167

THE KEBTJLAB HYPOTHESIS.

of those proto-chemical combinations forming a new ele-
ment, there might result an explosion capable of shattering
the entire planet, and propelling its fragments in all
directions with high velocities. If the hypothetical planet
between Jupiter and Mars was intermediate in size as in
position, it would apparently fulfil the conditions under
which such a catastrophe might occur.

Note IY. The argument set forth in the foregoing note,
is in part designed to introduce a question which seems
to require re-consideration— the origin of the minor planets
or planetoids. The hypothesis of Olbers, as propounded
by him, implied that the disruption of the assumed planet
between Mars and Jupiter had taken place at no very
remote period in the past; and this implication was shown
to be inadmissible by the discovery that there exists no snch
point of intersection of the orbits of the planetoids as the
hypothesis requires. The inquiry whether, in the past,
there was any nearer approach to a point of intersection
than at present, having resulted in a negative, it is held
that the hypothesis must be abandoned. It is, however,
admitted that the mutual perturbations of the planetoids
themselves would suffice, in the course of some millions of
years, to destroy all traces of a place of intersection of their
orbits , if it once existed. But if this be admitted why n eed
the hypothesis be abandoned ? Given such duration of the
Solar System as is currently assumed, there seems no
reason why lapse of a few millions of years should present
any difficulty. The explosion may as well have taken
place ten million years ago as at any more recent period.
And whoever grants this must grant that the probability
of the hypothesis has to be estimated from other data.

As a preliminary to closer consideration, let us ask what
may be inferredfrom the rate of discovery of the planetoids,
and from the sizes of those most recently discovered. In
1878, Prof, Newcomb, arguing that "the preponderance of

108 THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS.

evidence is on the side of the number and magnitude being
limited ”, says that “the newly discovered ones ” "do not
seem, on the average, to be materially smaller than those
■which were discovered ten years ago”; and further that
" the new ones will probably be found to grow decidedly
rare before another hundred are discovered Now, inspec-
tion of the tables contained in the just-published fourth
edition of Chambers’ Descriptive Astronomy (vol. I) shows
that whereas the planetoids discovered in 1868 (the year
Prof. Newcomb singles out for comparison) have an average
magnitude of 1P56 those discovered last year (1888) have
an average magnitude of 12*43. Further, it is observable
that though more than ninety have been discovered since
Prof. Newcomb wrote, they have by no means become
rare: the year 1888 having added ten to the list, and
having therefore maintained the average rate of the
preceding ten years. If, then, the indications Prof. New-
comb names, had they arisen, would have implied a limita-
tion of the number, these opposite indications imply that
the number is unlimited. The reasonable conclusion appears
to be that these minor planets are to be counted not by
hundreds but by thousands ; that more powerful telescopes
Will go on revealing still smaller ones ; and that additions
to the list will cease only when, the smallness ends in
invisibility.

Commencing now to scrutinize the two hypotheses
respecting the genesis of these multitudinous bodies, I may-
first remark concerning that of Laplace, that he might
possibly not have propounded it had He known that instead
of four such bodies there hare hundreds, if not thousands.
The supposition, that they resulted from the breaking up of
a nebulous ring into numerous small portions, instead of its
collapse into one mass, might not, in such case, have
seemed to him so probable. It would have appeared
still less probable had he been aware of all that has since
been discovered concerning the wide differences of the

THE NEBULAE HYPOTHESIS. 1(59

orbits in size, their various and often great eccentricities,
and tlieir various and often great inclinations. Let us
look at these and other incongruous traits of them.

(1.) Between the greatest and least mean distances of the
planetoids there is a space of 200 millions of miles ; so that
the whole of the Barth's orbit might be placed between the
limits of the zone occupied, and leave 7 millions of miles on
either side : add to which that the widest excursions of the
planetoids occupy a zone of 270 millions of miles. Had
the rings from which Mercury, Venus, and the Earth were
formed been one-sixth of the smaller width or one-nintli of
the greater, they would have united : there would have
been no nebulous rings at all, but a continuous disk. Way
more, since one of the planetoids trenches upon the orbit of
Mars, it follows that the nebulous ring out of which the
planetoids were formed must have overlapped that out of
which Mars was formed. How do these implications consist
with the nebular hypothesis ? (2.) The tacit assumption

usually made is that the different parts of a nebulous ring
have the same angular velocities. Though this assumption
may not be strictly true, yet it seems scarcely likely that
it is so widely untrue as it would be had the inner part of
the ring an angular velocity nearly thrice that of the outer.
Yet this is implied. While the period of Thule is 8.8
years, the period of Medusa is '3*1 years. (3.) - The
eccentricity of Jupiter's orbit is 0*04816, and the eccen-
tricity of Mars' orbit is 0*09311. Estimated by groups
of the first found and last found of the planetoids, the
average eccentricity of the assemblage is about three
times that of Jupiter and more than one and a half times
that of Mars; and among the members of the assemblage
themselves, some have an eccentricity thirty-five times that
of others. How came this nebulous zone, out of which it
is supposed the planetoids arose, to have originated eccen-
tricities so divergent from one another as well as from those
of the neighbouring planets ? (4.) A like question may

170

THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS.

be asked respecting tlie inclinations of tlie orbits. The
average inclination of the planetoid-orbits is four times
the inclination of Mars’ orbit and six times the inclination
of Jupiter’s orbit; and among the planetoid-orbits them-
selves the inclinations of some are fifty times those of
others. How are all these differences to be accounted
for on the hypothesis of genesis from a nebulous ring ?
(5.) Much greater becomes the difficulty on inquiring how
these extremely unlike eccentricities and inclinations came
to co-exist before the parts of the nebulous ring separated,
and how they survived after the separation. Were all the
great eccentricities displayed by the outermost members of
the group, and the small by the innermost members, and were
the inclinations so distributed that the orbits having much
belonged to one part of the group, and those having little
to another part of the group ; the difficulty of explanation
might not be insuperable. But the arrangement is by no
means this. The orbits are, to use an expressive word,
miscellaneously jumbled. Hence, if we go back to the
nebulous ring, there presents itself the question, — How
came each planetoid-forming portion of nebulous matter,
when it gathered itself together and separated, to have
a motion round the Sun differing so much from the motions
of its neighbours in, eccentricity and inclination? And
there presents itself the further question,-— How, during
the time when it was concentrating into a planetoid, did it
manage to jostle its way through all the differently-moving
like masses of nebulous matter, and yet to preserve its
individuality ? Answers to these questions are, it seems to
me, not even imaginable.

Turn we now to the alternative hypothesis. During re-
vision of the foregoing essay, in preparation for that edition
of the volume containing it which was published in 1883,
there occurred the thought that some light on the origin
of. the planetoids ought to be obtained by study of their

THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS.

171

distributions and movements. If, as Olbers supposed, they
resulted from tlie bursting* of a planet once revolving in
the region they occupy, flie implications are : — first, that
the fragments must be most abundant in. the space
immediately about the original orbit, and less abundant far
away from it; second, that the large fragments must be
relatively few, while of smaller fragments the numbers will
increase as the sizes decrease; third, that as some among
the smaller fragments will be propelled further than any of
the larger, the widest deviations in mean distance from the
mean distance of the original planet, will be presented by
the smallest members of the assemblage ; and fourth, that
the orbits differing most from the rest in eccentricity and
in inclination, will be among those of these smallest
members. In the fourth edition of Chambers’s Handbook
of Descriptive and Practical Astronomy (the first volume of
which has just been issued) there is a list of the elements
(extracted and adapted from the Berliner A stronomisches
Jahrbtich l : oi\1890) of all the small planets (281 in number)
which had been discovered up to the end of 1888.
The apparent brightness, as expressed in equivalent star-
magnitudes, is the only index we have to the probable
comparative sizes of by far the largest number of the
planetoids : the exceptions being among those first dis-
covered. Thus much premised, let us take the above
points in order. (1) There is a region lying between
2’50 and 2*80 (in terms of the Earth’s mean distance from
the Sun) where the planetoids are found in maximum
abundance. The mean between these extremes, 2*65, is
nearly the same as the average of the distances of the
four largest and earliest-known of these bodies, which
amounts to 2*64. May we not say that the thick clustering
about this distance (which is, however, rather less than
that assigned for the original planet by Bode’s empirical
law), in contrast with the wide scattering of the com-
paratively few whose distances are little more than 2 or

172

THE NEBULAE HYPOTHESIS.

exceed 8, is a fact in accordance with, the- hypothesis in
question ?* (2) Any table which gives the apparent

magnitudes of the planetoids, shows at once how much
the number of the smaller members of the assemblage
exceeds that of those which are comparatively large ; and
every succeeding year has emphasized this contrast more
strongly. Only one of them (Vesta) exceeds in brightness
the seventh star-magnitude, while one other (Ceres) is
between the seventh and eighth, and a third (Pallas) is
above the eighth; but between the eighth and ninth there
are six ; between the ninth and tenth, twenty; between the
tenth and eleventh, fifty-five ; below the eleventh a much
larger number is known, and the number existing is
probably far greater, — a conclusion • we cannot doubt
when the difficulty of finding the very faint members of
the family, visible only in the largest telescopes, is con-
sidered. (3) Kindred evidence is furnished if we broadly
contrast their mean distances. Out of the 13 largest plane-
toids whose apparent brightnesses exceed that of a star
of the 9‘5 magnitude, there is not one having a mean
distance that exceeds 3. Of those having magnitudes
at least 9*5 and smaller than 10, there are 15 ; and of
these one only has a mean distance greater than 3. Of
those between 10 and 105 there are 17; and of these
also there is one exceeding 3 in mean distance. In the
next group there are 87, and of these 5 have this great
mean distance. The next group, 48, contains 12 such;
the next, 47, contains 13 such. Of those of the twelfth
magnitude and fainter, 72 planetoids have been discovered,

* It may here be mentioned (though the principal significance of this
conies under the next head) that the average mean distance of the later-dis-
covered planetoids is somewhat greater than that of these earlier-discovered ;
amounting to 2-61 for Nos. 1 to 35 and 2-80 for Nos. 211 to 245. Por this
observation I am indebted to Mr. Lynn; whose attention was drawn to it
while revising for me the statements contained in this paragraph, so as to

include discoveries made since the paragraph was written.

173

THIS NEBULAE HYPOTHESIS.

and of those of them of which the orbits have boon
computed, no fewer than 23 have a mean distance
exceeding. 3 in terms of the Barth’s. It is evident from
this how comparatively erratic are; the fainter members of
the extensive family with which we are dealing, (4) To
illustrate the next point, it maybe noted that among the
planetoids whose sizes have been approximately measured,
the orbits of the two largest, Vesta and Ceres, have
eccentricities falling between ’05 and *10, whilst the orbits
of the two smallest, Menippe and Eva, have eccentricities
falling between '20 and *25, and between *30 and *35. ;
And then among those more recently discovered, having
diameters so small that measurement of them has not been
practicable, come the extremely erratic ones, — Hilda and
Thule, which have mean distances of 3*97 and 4*25
respectively ; AEthra, having an orbit so eccentric that it
cuts the orbit of Mars ; and Medusa, which has the smallest
mean distance from the Sun of any. (5) If the average
eccentricities of the orbits of the planetoids grouped
according to their decreasing sizes are compared, no very
definite results are disclosed, excepting this, that the eight
Polyhymnia, Atalanta, Bury dice, riEthra, Eva, Andromache,
Istria, and Eudora, which have the greatest eccentricities
(falling between *30 and *38), are all among those of
smallest star-magnitudes. Nor when we consider the
inclinations of the orbits do we meet with obvious veri-
fications ; since the proportion of highly-inclined orbits
among the smaller planetoids does not appear to be greater
than among the others. But consideration shows that
there are two ways in which these last comparisons are
vitiated. One is that the inclinations are measured from
the plane of the ecliptic, instead of being measured from
the plane of the orbit of the hypothetical planet. The
other, and more important one, is that the search for
planetoids has naturally been carried on in that com-
paratively narrow zone within which most of their orbits

174 the nebulae hypothesis.

fall; and that, consequently, those having the most highly-
inclined orbits are the least likely to have been detected,
especially if they are at the same time among the smallest.
Moreover, considering the general relation between the
inclination of planetoid orbits and their eccentricities,
it is probable that among the orbits of these undetected
planetoids are many of the most eccentric. But while
recognizing the incompleteness of the evidence, it seems to
me that it goes far to justify the hypothesis of Olbers, and
is quite incongruous with that of Laplace. And as having
the same meanings let me not omit the remarkable fact
concerning the planetoids discovered by D’ Arrest, that “ if
their orbits are figured under the form of material rings,
these rings will be found so entangled, that it would be
possible, by means of one among them taken at hazard, to
lift up all the rest,” — a fact incongruous with Laplace’s
hypothesis, which implies an approximate concentricity, but
quite congruous with the hypothesis of an exploded planet.

Next to be considered come phenomena, the bearings of
which on the question before us are scarcely considered — I
mean those presented by meteors and shooting stars. The
natures and distributions of these harmonize with the
hypothesis of an exploded planet, and I think with no
other hypothesis. The theory of volcanic origin, joined
with the remark that the Sun emits jets which might propel
them with adequate velocities, seems quite untenable. Such
meteoric bodies as have descended to us, forbid absolutely
the supposition of solar origin. Nor can they rationally
be ascribed to planetary volcanoes. Even were their
mineral characters appropriate, which many of them are
not (for volcanoes do not eject iron), no planetary volcanoes
could propel them with anything like the implied velocity —
could no more withstand the tremendous force to be assumed,
than could a card-board gun the force behind a rifle bullet.
But that their mineral characters, various as they are,
harmonize with the supposition that they were derived

175

THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS.

from tlio crust of a planet is manifest; and tliat the burst-
ing of a planet might give to them, and to shooting stars,
the needful velocities, is a reasonable conclusion. Along
with those larger fragments of the crust constituting the
known planetoids, varying from some 200 miles in diameter
to little over a dozen, there would be sent out still more
multitudinous portions of the crust, decreasing in size as
they increased in number. And while there would thus
result such masses as occasionally fall through the Earth's
atmosphere to its surface, there would, in an accompanying ,
process, be an adequate cause for the myriads of far smaller
masses which, as shooting stars, are dissipated in passing
through the Earth's atmosphere. Let us figure to ourselves,
as well as we may, the process of explosion.

Assume that the diameter of the missing planet was
20,000 miles; that its solid crust was a thousand miles
thick; that under this came a shell of molten metallic
matter which was another thousand miles thick ; and that the
space, 16,000 miles in diameter, within this, was occupied by
the equally dense mass of gases above the u critical point",
which, entering into a proto-chemical combination, caused,
the destroying explosion. The primary fissures in the crust
must have been far apart — probably averaging distances
between them as great as the thickness of the crust. Sup-
posing them approximately equidistant, there Would, in the
equatorial periphery, be between 60 and 70 fissures. By
the time the primary fragments thus separated had been
heaved a mile outwards, the fissures formed would severally
have, at the surface, a width of 170 odd yards. Of course
these great masses, as soon as they moved, would them-
selves begin to fall in pieces; especially at their bounding
surfaces. But passing over the resulting complications, we
see that when tlie masses had been propelled 10 miles out-
wards, the fissures between them would be each a mile wide.
Notwithstanding the enormous forces at work, an appreciable
interval would elapse before these vast portions of the crust

178

THE HEBITLAB HYPOTHESIS.

could "be put in motion, with: any considerable velocities.
Perhaps the estimate will be under the mark if we assume
that it took 10 seconds to propel them through the first
•mi le, and that, by implication, at the end of 20 seconds they
had travelled 4 miles, and at the end of 80 seconds 9 miles.
Supposing this granted, let ns ask what would be taking
place in each intervening fissure a thousand miles deep,
which, in the space of half a minute, had opened out to
nearly a mile wide, and . in the subsequent half minute to a
chasm approaching 3 miles in width. There would first be
propelled through it enormous jets of the molten metals
composing the internal liquid shell ; and these would part
into relatively small masses as they were shot into space.
Presently, as the chasm opened to some miles in width, the
molten metals would begin to be followed by the equally
dense gaseous matter behind, and the two would rush out
together. Soon the gases, predominating, would carry with
them the portions of the liquid shell continually collapsing ;
until the blast became one filled with millions of small
masses, billions of smaller masses, and trillions of drops.
These would be driven into space in a stream, the emission
of which would continue for many seconds or even several
minutes. Remembering the rate of motion of the jets
emitted from the solar surface, and supposing that the
blasts produced by this explosion reached only one-tenth
of that rate, these myriads of small masses and drops would
be propelled with planetary velocities, and in approximately
the same direction. I say approximately, because they
would be made to deviate somewhat by the friction and
irregularities of the chasm passed through, and also by the
rotation of the planet. Observe, however, that though they
would all have immense velocities, their velocities would not
be equal. During its earlier stages the blast would be
considerably retarded by the resistance which the sides of
its channel offered. When this became relatively small the
velocity of the blast -would reach its maximum ; from which

.’HE NEBULAE HYrOTHESIS.

177

it would decline when the space for emission became very
wide, and the pressure behind consequently less. Hence
these almost infinitely numerous particles of planet-spray,
as we might call it, as well as those formed by the conden-
sation of the metallic vapours accompanying them, would
forthwith begin to part company : some going rapidly in
advance, and others falling behind; until the stream of
them, perpetually elongating, formed an orbit round tho
Sun, or rather an. assemblage of innumerable orbits, separ-
ating widely at aphelion and perihelion, but approximating
midway, where they might fall within a space of, say, some
two millions of miles, as do the orbits of the November
meteors. At a later stage of the explosion, when the largo
masses, having moved far outwards, had also fallen to pieces
of every size, from that of Vesta to that of an aerolite, and
when the channels just described had ceased to exist, the
contents of the planet would disperse themselves with lower
velocities and without any unity of direction. Hence wo
see causes alike for the streams of shooting stars, for the
solitai’y shooting stars visible to the naked eye, and for tho
telescopic shooting stars a score times more numerous.

Further significant evidence is furnished by the comets
of short periods. Of the thirteen constituting this group,
twelve have orbits falling between those of Mars and
Jupiter : one only having its aphelion beyond the orbit of
Jupiter. That is to say, nearly all of them frequent the
same region as tho planetoids. By implication, they are
similarly associated in respect of their periods. The periods
of the planetoids range from B.l to 8.8 years; and all these
twelve comets have periods falling between these extremes:
the least being 8.29 and the greatest 8.86. Once more
this family of comets, like the planetoids in the zone they
occupy and like them in their periods, are like them also
in the respect that, as Mr. Lynn has pointed out, their
motions are all direct. How happens this close kinship —
how happens there to be this family of comets so much like

THE NEBULAE HYPOTHESIS.

178

the planetoids and so much like one another, hut so unlike
comets at large ? The obvious suggestion is that they are
among the products of the explosion which originated the
planetoids, the aerolites, and the streams of meteors ; and
consideration of the probable circumstances shows us that
such products might be expected. If the hypothetical
planet was like its neighbour Jupiter in having an atmo-
sphere, or like its neighbour Mars iu having water on its
surface, or like both in these respects; then these superficial
masses of liquid, of vapour, and of gas, blown into space along
with the solid matters, would yield the materials for comets.
There would result, too, comets unlike one another in con-
stitution. If a fissure opened beneath one of the seas, the
molten metals and metallic gases rushing through it as
above described, would decompose part of the water carried
with them ; and the oxygen and hydrogen liberated would
be mingled with undecomposed vapour. In other cases,
portions of the atmosphere might be propelled, probably
with portions of vapour; and in yet other cases masses of
water alone. Severally subject to great beat at perihelion,
these would behave more or less differently. Once more,
it would ordinarily happen that detached swarms of meteors
projected as implied, would carry with them masses of
vapours and gases ; whence would result the cometic con-
stitution now insisted on. And sometimes there would bo
like accompaniments to meteoric streams.

Seo, then, the contrast between the two hypotheses.
That of Laplace, looking probable while there were only
four planetoids, but decreasing in apparent likelihood as the
planetoids increase in number, until, as they pass through
the hundreds on their way to the thousands, it becomes
obviously improbable, is, at the same time, otherwise
objectionable. It pre-supposes a nebulous ring of a width so
enormous that it would have overlapped the ring* of Mars.
This ring would have had differences between the angular
velocities of its parts quite inconsistent with the Nebular

THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS.

17 ^

Hypothesis. The average eccentricities of the orbits of its
parts must have differed greatly from those of adjacent
orbits; and the average inclinations of the orbits of its parts
must similarly have differed greatly from those of adjacent
orbits. Once more, the orbits of its parts* confusedly
interspersed* must have had varieties of eccentricity and
inclination unaccountable in portions of the same nebulous
ring ; and* during concentration into planetoids* each must
have had to maintain its course while struggling through
the assemblage of other small nebulous masses* severally
moving in ways unlike its own. On the other hand* the
hypothesis of an exploded planet is supported by every
increase in the number of planetoids discovered ; by the
greater numbers of the smaller sizes; by the thicker
clustering near the inferred place of the missing planet ;
by the occurrence of the greatest mean distances among the
smallest members of the assemblage ; by the occurrence of
the greatest eccentricities in the orbits of these smallest
members; and by the entanglement of all the orbits.
Further support for the hypothesis is yielded by aerolites*
so various in their kinds* but all suggestive of a planet’s
crust ; by the streams of shooting stars having their radiant
points variously placed in the heavens ; and also by the
solitary shooting stars visible to the naked eye, and the more
numerous ones visible through telescopes. Once more* it
harmonizes with the discovery of a family of comets* twelve
out of thirteen of which have mean distances falling within
the zone of the planetoids* have similarly associated periods*
have all the same direct motions* and are connected ■with
swarms of meteors and with meteoric streams. May w r e
not* indeed* say* that if there once existed a planet between
Mars and Jupiter which burst* the explosion must have
produced just such clusters of bodies and classes of
phenomena as we actually find ?

And what is the objection ? Merely that if such an
explosion occurred it must have occurred many millions of

180

THE NEBULAE HYPOTHESIS.

years ago— -an objection which is in fact no objection; for
tlie supposition that the' explosion occurred many millions
of years ago is just as reasonable as the supposition that it
occurred recently.

It is, indeed, further objected that some of the resulting
fragments ought to have retrograde motions. It turns out
on calculation, however, that this is not the case. Assuming
as true the velocity -which Lagrange estimated would have
sufficed to give the four chief planetoids the positions they
occupy, it results that such a velocity, given to the frag-
ments which were propelled backwards by the explosion,
would not have given them retrograde motions, but would
simply have reduced their direct motions from something
over 11 miles per second to about 6 miles per second. It
is, however, manifest that this reduction of velocity would
have necessitated the formation of highly-elliptic orbits — >
more elliptic than any of those at present known. This
seems to me the most serious difficulty which has presented-
itself. Still, considering that there remain probably an
immense number of planetoids to be discovered, it is quite
possible that among these there may be some having orbits
answering to the requirement.

Note Y. Shortly before I commenced the revision of
the foregoing essay, friends on two occasions named to me
some remarkable photographs of nebulas recently obtained
by Mr. Isaac Roberts, and exhibited at the Royal Astro-
nomical Society: saying that they presented appearances
such as might have been sketched by Laplace in illustration
of Ms hypothesis. Mr. Roberts has been kind enough to
send me copies of the photographs in question and sundry
others illustrative of stellar evolution. Those representing
the Great Nebulas in Andromeda and Caniirn Yenaticorum
as well as 81 Messier are at once impressive and instructive
—illustrating as they do the genesis of nebulous rings
round a central mass.

381 '

THE NEBULAE HYPOTHESIS.

I may remark, however, that they seem to suggest the
need for some modification of the current conception;
since they make it tolerably clear that the process is a
much less uniform one than is supposed. The usual idea is
that a vast rotating nebulous spheroid arises before there
are produced any of the planet-forming rings. But both
of these photographs apparently imply that, in some cases
at any rate, the portions of nebulous matter composing the
rings take shape before they reach the central mass. It
looks as though these partially-formed annuli must be
prevented by their acquired motions from approaching
even very near to the still-irregular body they surround.

Be this as it may, however, and be the dimensions of the
incipient systems what they may (an$. it would seem to be
a necessary implication that they are vastly larger than our
Solar System), the process remains essentially the same.
Practically demonstrated as this process now is, we may
say that the doctrine of nebular genesis passes from the
region of hypothesis into the region of established truth.

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE SUN.

[First published in The Reader for February 25, 1865. I
reproduce this essay chiefly to give a place to the speculation
concerning the solar spots which forms the latter portion of it."]

Thb hypothesis of M. Faye, described in your numbers
for January 28 and February 4, respectively, is to a con-
siderable extent coincident with one which I ventured to
suggest in an article on “ Recent Astronomy and the Nebular
Hypothesis,” published in the Westminster Review for July,
1858. In considering the possible causes of the immense
differences of specific gravity among the planets, I was led
to question the validity of the tacit assumption that each
planet consists of solid or liquid matter from centre to
surface. It seemed to me that any other internal structure
which was mechanically stable, might be assumed with
equal legitimacy. And the hypothesis of a solid or liquid
shell, having its cavity filled with gaseous matter at high
pressure and temperature [and of great density], was one
which seemed worth considering.

Hence arose the inquiry— -What structure will result from
the process of nebular condensation ? [Here followed a
long speculation respecting the processes going on in a
concentrating nebulous spheroid; the general outcome of
which is implied in Note III of the foregoing essay. I do
not reproduce it because, not having the guidance of Prof.
Andrew’s researches, I had concluded that the formation of
a molten shell would occur universally, instead of occasion-

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE SUN, 183

ally, as is now argued in tlie note named. The essay then

proceeded thus : — ]

The process of condensation being in its essentials the
same for all concentrating nebular spheroids, planetary or
solar, it was argued that the Sun is still passing through
that incandescent stage which all the planets have long
ago passed through : his later aggregation, joined with the
immensely greater ratio of his mass to his surface, involv-
ing comparative lateness of cooling. Supposing the sun
to have reached the state of a molten • shell, inclosing a
gaseous nucleus, it was concluded that this molten shell,
ever radiating its heat, but ever acquiring fresh heat by
further integration of the Sun's mass, must be constantly kept
up to that temperature at which its substance evaporates.

[Here followed part of the paragraph quoted in the
preceding essay on p. 155; and there succeeded, in subse-
quent editions, a paragraph aiming to show that the inferred
structure of the Sun’s interior was congruous with the low
specific gravity of the Sun — a conclusion which, as in-
dicated on p. 156, implies some very problematical assump-
tions respecting the natures of the unknown elements of
the Sun. There then came this passage : — ]

The conception of the Sun’s constitution thus set forth,
is like that of M. Faye in so far as the successive changes,
the resulting structures, and the ultimate state, are con-
cerned ; but unlike it in so far as the Sun is supposed to
have reached a later stage of concentration. As I gather
from your abstract of M. Faye’s paper [this referred to an
article in The Reader ] , he considers the Sun to be at present
a gaseous spheroid, having an envelope of metallic matters
precipitated in the shape of luminous clouds, the local dis-
persions of which, caused by currents from within, appear
to us as spots ; and he looks forward to the future forma-
tion of a liquid film as an event that will soon be followed
by -extinction. Whereas the above hypothesis is that the
liquid film already exists beneath the visible photosphere,
9

184 THE CONSTITUTION OF THE SUN.

and tliat extinction cannot result until, in tlie course of
further aggregation, the gaseous nucleus has become so
much reduced, and the shell so much thickened, that the
escape of the heat generated is greatly retarded. .

M. k aye’s hypothesis appears to be espoused by him, partly
because it affords' an explanation of the spots, which are
considered as openings in the photosphere, exposing the
comparatively non-luminous gases filling the interior. But
if these interior gases are non-luminous from the absence
of precipitated matter, must they not for the same reason
be transparent? And if transparent, will not the light
from the remote side of the photosphere seen through them,
be nearly as bright as that of the side next to us ? By as
much as the intensely-heated gases of the interior are dis-
abled by the dissociation of their molecules from giving off
luminiferous undulations, by so much must they be disabled
from absorbing the light transmitted through them. And
if their great light-transmitting power is exactly comple-
mentary to their small light-emitting power, there seems no
reason why the interior of the Sun, disclosed to us by
openings in the photosphere, should not appear as bright
as its exterior.

Take, on the other hand, the supposition that a more
advanced state of concentration has been reached. A shell
of molten metallic matter enclosing a gaseous nucleus still
higher in temperature than itself, will be continually kept
at the highest temperature consistent with its state of liquid
aggregation. Unless we assume that simple radiation
suffices to give off all the heat generated by progressing
integration, we must conclude that the mass will be raised
to that temperature at which part of its heat is absorbed in,
vaporizing its superficial parts. The atmosphere of metallic
gases hence resulting, cannot continue to accumulate with-
out reaching a height above the Sun’s surface, at which
the cooling due to radiation and rarefaction will cause con-
densation into cloud — cannot, indeed, cease accumulating

185

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE SUN.

until tlie precipitation from tlie upper limit of tlie atmo-
sphere 'balances tlie evaporation from its lower limit. This
upper limit the atmosphere of metallic gases/ whence
precipitation is perpetually taking place, will form the
visible photosphere — partly giving off light of its own,
partly letting through the more brilliant light of the
incandescent mass below. This conclusion harmonizes with
the appearances. Sir John Herschel, advocating though
lie does an antagonist hypothesis, gives a description of the
Sun’s surface which agrees completely with the processes
here supposed. He says : — -

“There is nothing which represents so faithfully this appearance as the
slow subsidence of some flocculent chemical precipitates in a transparent
fluid, when viewed perpendicularly from above : so faithfully, indeed, that it
is hardly possible not to be impressed with the idea of a luminous medium
intermixed, but not confounded, with a transparent and non-luminous
atmosphere, either floating as clouds in our air, or pervading it in vast sheets
and columns like flame, or the streamers of our northern lights — Treatise
on Astronomy , p. 208.

If the constitution of the Sun be that which is above
inferred, it does not seem difficult to conceive still more
specifically the production of these appearances. Every-
where throughout the atmosphere of metallic vapours which
clothes the solar surface, there must be ascending and
descending currents. The magnitude of these currents must
obviously depend on the depth of this atmosphere. If it is
shallow, the currents must be small ; but if many thousands
of miles deep, the currents may be wide enough to render
visible to us the places at which they severally impinge on
the limit of the atmosphere, and the places whence the
descending currents commence. The top of an ascending
current will be a space over which the thickness of con-
densed cloud is the least, and through which the greatest
amount of light from beneath penetrates. The clouds
perpetually formed at the top of such a current, will be per-
petually thrust aside by the uncondensed gases from below
them ; and, growing while they are thrust aside, will collect

186 THE CONSTITUTION OF THE SUN.

in the spaces between tbe ascending currents, where there
will result the greatest degree of opacity. Hence the
mottled appearance — hence the “pores,” or dark inter-
spaces, separating the light-giving spots.*

Of the more special appearances which the photosphere
presents, let us take first the faculse. These are ascribed
to waves in the photosphere ; and the way in which such
waves might produce an excess of light has been variously
explained in conformity with various hypotheses. What
would result from them in a photosphere constituted and
conditioned as above supposed ? Traversing a .canopy of
cloud, here thicker and .there thinner, a wave would cause
a disturbance very unlikely to leave the thin and thick
parts without any change in their average permeability to
light. There would probably be, at some parts of the
wave, extensions in the areas of the light-transmitting
clouds, resulting in the passage of more rays from below.
Another phenomenon, less common but more striking,
appears also to be in harmony with the hypothesis. I
refer to those bright spots, of a brilliancy greater than that
of the photosphere, which are sometimes observed. In the
course of a physical process so vast and so active as that
here supposed to be going on in the Sun, we may expect
that concurrent causes will occasionally produce ascending
currents much hotter than usual, or more voluminous, or
both. One of these, on reaching” the stratum of luminous
and illuminated cloud forming the photosphere, will burst
through it, dispersing and dissolving it, and ascending to a
greater height before it begins itself to condense : mean-

* If the “ rice-grain ” appearance is thus produced by the tops of the
ascending currents (and M. Faye accepts this interpretation), then I think
it excludes M. Faye’s hypothesis that the Sun is gaseous throughout. The
comparative smallness of the light-giving spots and their comparative
uniformity of size, show us that they have ascended through a stratum of but
moderate depth (say 10,000 miles), and that this stratum has a definite lower
limit. This favours the hypothesis of a molten shell.

THE CONSTITUTION OS' THE SUN.. 187

while allowing to "be seen, through its transparent mass,
tlie incandescent molten shell of the sun’s body.

[The foregoing passages, to most of which I do not commit
myself as more than possibilities, I republish chiefly as
introductory to the following speculation, which, since it
was propounded in 1865, has met with some acceptance.]
But what of the spots commonly so called?” it will be
asked. In the essay on the Nebular hypothesis, above
quoted from, it was suggested that refraction of the light
passing through the depressed centres of cyclones in this
atmosphere of metallic gases, might possibly be the cause j
but this, though defensible as a ce true cause,” appeared on
further consideration to he an inadequate cause. Keeping
the question in mind, however, and still taking as a pos-
tulate the conclusion of Sir John Herschel, that the spots
are in some way produced by cyclones, I was led, in the
course of the year following the publication of the essay,
to an hypothesis which seemed more satisfactory. This,
which I named at the time to Prof. Tyndall, had a point
in common with the one afterward published by Prof.
Kirchhoff, in so far as it supposed cloud to bo the cause of
darkness ; but differed in so far as it assigned the cause of
such cloud. More pressing matters prevented me from
developing the idea for some time ; and, afterwards, I was
deterred from including it in the revised edition of the
essay, by its inconsistency with the “ willow-leaf ” doctrine,
at that time dominant. The reasoning was as follows : —
The central region of a cyclone must be a region of
rarefaction, and, consequently, a region of refrigeration.
In an atmosphere of metallic gases rising from a molten
surface, and presently reaching a limit at which condensa-
tion takes place, the molecular state, especially toward its
upper part, must be such that a moderate diminution of
density, and fall of temperature, will cause precipitation.
That is to say, the rarefied interior of a solar cyclone will
be filled with cloud : condensation, instead of taking place

188

THE CONSTITUTION OP THE SUN.

only at the level of the photosphere, will here extend to a
great depth "below it, and over a wide area. What will he
the characters of a cloud thus occupying the interior of a
cyclone ? It will have a rotatory motion ; and this it has
been seen to have. Being funnel-shaped, as analogy war-
rants us in assuming, its central parts will he much deeper
than its peripheral parts, and therefore more Opaque.
This, too, corresponds with observation. Mr. Dawes has
discovered that in the middle of the spot there is a blacker
spot: just where there would exist a funnel-shaped pro-
longation of the cyclonic cloud down toward the Sun's
body, the darkness is greater than elsewhere. Moreover,
there is furnished an adequate reason for the depression
which one of these dark spaces exhibits. In a whirlwind,
as in a whirlpool, the vortex will bo below the general
level, and all around, the surface of the medium, will de-
scend toward it. Hence a spot seen obliquely, as when
carried toward the Sun's limb, will have its umbra more
and more hidden, while its penumbra still remains visible.
Hor are we without some interpretation of the penumbra.
If, as is implied by what has been said, the so-called “ wil-
low-leaves," or “ rice-grains,” are the tops of the currents
ascending from the Sun's body, what changes of appear-
ance are they likely to undergo in the neighbourhood of
a cyclone ? For some distance round a cyclone there will
be a drawing in of the superficial gases toward the vortex.
All the luminous spaces of more transparent cloud forming
the adjacent photosphere, will be changed in shape by
these centripetal currents. They will be greatly elongated ;
and there will so be produced that <( thatch "-like aspect
which I he penumbra presents.

[The explanation of the solar spots above suggested,
which was originally propounded in opposition to that of
M. Faye, was eventually adopted by him in place of his

189

THE CONSTITUTION 03? THE SUN.

own. In the Gomptes Rmdus for 1867, Yol. LXTY, p. 401,
he refers to the article in the Reader , partly reproduced
above, and speaks of me as having been replied to in a
previous note. Again in the Comp ten Reiidus for 1872,
Yol. LXXY., p. 1664, he recognizes the inadequacy of his
hypothesis, saying : — “II est certain que 1’ objection do
M. Spencer, reprodu.it et developpee par M. Kirchoff, est
fondee jusqu’a un certain point; l’interieur des taches, si ce
sont des lacunes dans la photosphere, doit efcre froid rela-
tivement. . . . II est done impossible qu’elles proviennent
d’eruptions ascendantes.” He then proceeds to set forth
the hypothesis that the spots are caused by the precipita-
tion of vapour in the interiors of cyclones. But though,
as above shown, he refers to the objection made in the
foregoing essay to his original hypothesis, and recognizes
its cogency, he does not say that the hypothesis which he
thereupon substitutes is also to be found in the foregoing
essay. Nor does he intimate this in the elaborate paper on
the subject read before the French Association for the
Advancement of Science, and published in the Revue
Scientijique for the 24th March 1883. The result is that
the hypothesis is now currently ascribed to him.*

About four months before I had to revise this essay on
“ The Constitution of the Sun,” while staying near Pewsey,

* I should add that while M. Faye ascribes solar spots to clouds
formed within cyclones, we differ concerning the nature of the cloud. I
have argued that it is formed by rarefaction, and consequent refrigeration,
of the metallic gases constituting the stratum in which the cyclone exists.
He argues that it is formed within the mass of cooled hydrogen drawn from
the chromosphere into the vortex of the cyclone. Speaking of the cyclones
he says:— “Dans leur embouchure evasee ils entraineront I’hydrog&ne froid
de la chromosphere, produisant partout sur leur trajet vertical un abate-
ment notable de temperature et une obscurity relative, due a 1’opacite de
rhydrogSne froid englouti.” (Eevue Scientijique, 24 March 1883.) Con-
sidering the intense cold required to reduce hydrogen to the “ critical
point,” it is a strong supposition that the motion given to it by fluid
friction on entering the vortex of the cyclone, can produce a rotation, rare-
faction, and cooling, great enough to produce precipitation in a region so
Intensely heated.

190 THE CONSTITUTION OE THE SUN.

in Wiltshire, I was fortunate enough to witness a phenome-
non which furnished, by analogy, a verification of the above
hypothesis, and. served more especially to elucidate one of
the traits of solar spots, otherwise difficult to understand.
It was at the close of August, when there had been a spell
of very hot weather. A slight current of air from the W est,
moving along the line of the valley, had persisted through
the day, which, up to 5 o’clock, had been cloudless, and, with
the exception now to be named, remained cloudless. The
exception was furnished by a strange-looking cloud almost
directly overhead. Its central part was comparatively
dense and structureless. Its peripheral part, or to speak
strictly, the two-thirds of it which were nearest and most
clearly visible, consisted of converging streaks of compara-
tively thin cloud. Possibly the third part on the remoter
side was similarly constituted; but this I could not see.
It did not occur to me at the time to think about its cause,
though, had the question been raised, I should doubtless
have concluded that as the sky still remained cloudless
everywhere else, this precipitated mass of vapour must have
resulted from a local eddy. In the space of perhaps half-
an-hour, the gentle breeze had carried this cloud some
miles to the East ; and now its nature became obvious.
That central part which, seen from underneath, Seemed
simply a dense, confused part, apparently no nearer than the
rest, now, seen sideways, was obviously much lower than
the rest and rudely funnel-shaped — nipple-shaped one might
say ; while the wide thin portion of cloud above it was
disk-shaped : the converging streaks of cloud being now, in
perspective, merged together. It thus became manifest
that the cloud was produced by a feeble whirlwind, perhaps
a quarter to half-a-mile in diameter. 'Further, the appear-
ances made it clear that this feeble whirlwind was limited
to the lower stratum of air : the stratum of air above it
was not implicated in the cyclonic action. And then, lastly,
there was the striking fact that the upper stratum, though

THE CONSTITUTION OF T3IE SUN. 191

not involved in the whirl, was, by its proximity to a region
of diminished pressure, slightly rarified; and that its pre-
cipitated vapour was, by the draught set up towards the
Vortex below, drawn into converging streaks. Here, then,
was an action analogous to that which, as above suggested,
happens around a sun-spot, where the masses of illu-
minated vapour constituting the photosphere are drawn
towards the vortex of the cyclone, and simultaneously elon-
gated into striae : so forming the penumbra. At the same
time there was furnished an answer to the chief objection
to the cyclonic theory of solar spots. For if, as here seen,
a cyclone in a lower stratum may fail to communicate a
vortical motion to the stratum above it, we may comprehend
how, in a solar cyclone, the photosphere commonly fails to
give any indication of the revolving currents below, and is
only occasionally so entangled in these currents as itself to
display a vortical motion.

Let me add that apart from the elucidations furnished
by the phenomenon above described, the probabilities are
greatly in favour of the cyclonic origin of the solar spots.
That some of them exhibit clear marks of vortical motion
is undeniable ; and if this is so, the question arises — What
is the degree of likelihood that there are two causes for
spots ? Considering that they have so many characters in
common, it is extremely improbable that their common
characters are in some cases the concomitants of vortical
motion and in other cases the concomitants of a different
kind of action. Recognizing this great improbability, even
in the absence of a reconciliation between the apparently
conflicting traits, it is, I think, clear that when, in the way
above shown, we are enabled to understand how it happens
that the vortical motion, not ordinarily implicating the
photosphere, may consequently be in most cases miapparent,
the reasons for accepting the cyclonic theory become
almost conclusive.]

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY.

[First published in The Universal Review for July, 1859.]

That proclivity to generalization which is possessed in
greater or less degree by all minds, and without which,
indeed, intelligence cannot exist, has unavoidable incon-
veniences. Through it alone can truth be reached; and
yet it almost inevitably betrays into error. But for the
tendency to predicate of every other case, that which has
been found in the observed cases, there could be no rational
thinking; and yet by this indispensable tendency, men are
perpetually led to found, on limited experience, propositions
which they wrongly assume to be universal or absolute. In
one sense, however, this can scarcely be regarded as an
evil; for without premature generalizations the true
generalization would never be arrived at. If we waited
till all the facts were accumulated before trying to formulate
them, the vast unorganized mass would be unmanageable.
Only by provisional grouping can they be brought into
such order as to be dealt with ; and this provisional group-
ing is but another name for premature generalization.
How uniformly men follow this course, and how needful
the errors are as stops to truth, is well illustrated in the
history of Astronomy. The heavenly bodies move round
the Earth in circles, said the earliest observers : led partly
by the appearances, and partly by their experiences of

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY. 193

central motions in terrestrial objects, mill which, as all
circular, they classed tbe celestial motions from lack of any
alternative conception. Without this provisional belief,
wrong as it was, there could not have been that comparison
of positions which showed that the motions are not represent-
able by circles ; and which led to the hypothesis of epicycles
and eccentrics. Only by the aid of this hypothesis, equally
untrue, but capable of accounting more nearly for the
appearances, and so of inducing more accurate observations
— only thus did it become possible for Copernicus to show
that the heliocentric theory is more feasible than the geo-
centric theory ; or for Kepler to show that the planets
move round the sun in ellipses. Yet again, without the
aid of Kepler’s more advanced theory of the Solar system,
Kewton could not have established that general law from
which it follows, that the motion of a heavenly body is not
necessarily in an ellipse, but may be in any conic section.
And lastly, it was only after the law of gravitation bad
been verified, that it became possible to determine the
actual courses of planets, satellites, and comets; and to
prove that, in consequence of perturbations, their orbits
always deviate, more or less, from regular curves. In these
successive theories we may trace both the tendency men
have to leap from scanty data to wide generalizations, that
are either untrue or but partially true ; and the necessity
there is for such transitional generalizations as steps to the
final one.

In the progress of geological speculation, the same laws
of thought are displayed. We have dogmas that were
more than half false, passing current for a time as universal
truths. We have evidence collected in proof of these
dogmas; by and by a colligation of facts in antagonism
with them; and eventually a consequent modification. In
conformity with this improved hypothesis, we have a better
classification of facts; a greater power of arranging and
interpreting the new facts now rapidly gathered together;

194 ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY.

and further resulting corrections of hypothesis. Being, as
we are at present, in the midst of this process, it is not
possible to give an adequate account of the development of
geological science as thus regarded : the earlier stages are
alone known to us. Not only, however, is it interesting to
observe how the more advanced views now received respect-
ing the Earth’s history, have been evolved out of the crude
views which preceded them ; but we shall find it extremely
instructive to observe this. We shall see how greatly the
old ideas still sway both the general mind and the minds
of geologists themselves. We shall see how the kind of
evidence that has in part abolished these old ideas, is still
daily accumulating, and threatens to make other like
revolutions. In brief, we shall see whereabouts we are in
the elaboration of a true theory of the Earth; and, seeing
out whereabouts, shall be the better able to judge, among
various conflicting opinions, which best conform to the
ascertained direction of geological discovery.

It is needless here to enumerate the many speculations
which were in earlier ages propounded by acute men —
speculations some of which contained portions of truth.
Falling in unfit times, these speculations did not germinate;
and hence do not concern us. We have nothing to do with
ideas, however good, out of which no science grew; but
only with those which gave origin to the existing’ system of
Geology. We therefore begin with Werner.

Taking* for data the appearances of the Earth’s crust in
a narrow district of Germany ; observing the constant order
of superposition of strata, and their respective physical
characters; Werner drew the inference that strata of like
characters succeeded each other in like order over the entire
surface of the Earth. And seeing, from tlio laminated
structure of many formations and the organic remains con-
tained in others, that they were sedimentary; he further
inferred that these universal strata had been in succession
precipitated from a chaotic menstruum which once covered

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY. 195

our planet. Tims, on a very incomplete acquaintance with
a thousandth part of the Earth’s crust, he based a sweeping
generalization applying to the whole of it. This Neptunist
hypothesis, mark, borne out though it seemed to be by the
most conspicuous surrounding facts, was quite untenable
if analyzed. That a universal chaotic menstruum should
deposit a series of numerous sharply-defined strata, differ-
ing from one another in composition, is incomprehensible.
That the strata so deposited should contain the remains of
plants and animals, which could not have lived under
the supposed conditions, is still more incomprehensible.
Physically absurd, however, as was this hypothesis, it
recognized, though under a distorted form, one of the great
agencies of geological change— the action of water. It
served also to express the fact, that the formations of the
Earth’s crust stand in some kind of order. Further, it did
a little towards supplying a nomenclature, without which
much progress was impossible. Lastly, it furnished a
standard with which successions of strata in various regions
could be compared, the differences noted, and the actual
sections tabulated. It was the first provisional generaliza-
tion) and was useful, if not indispensable, as a step to
truer ones.

Following this rude conception, which ascribed geological
phenomena to one agency, acting during one primeval
epoch, there came a greatly-improved conception, which
ascribed them to two agencies, acting alternately during
successive epochs. Hutton, perceiving that sedimentary
deposits were still being formed at the bottom of the sea from
the detritus carried down by rivers,* perceiving, further,
that the strata of which the visible surface chiefly consists,
bore marks of having been similarly formed out of pre-
existing laud; and inferring that these strata could have
become land only by upheaval after their deposit; con-
cluded that throughout an indefinite past, there had been
periodic convulsions, by which continents were raised,

196

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY.

with intervening eras of repose, during which, such con-
tinents were worn down and transformed into. new marine
strata, fated to be in their turns elevated above the
surface of the ocean. And finding that igneous action, to
which sundry earlier geologists had ascribed basaltic rocks,
was in countless places a cause of disturbance, he taught
that from it resulted these periodic convulsions. In this
theory we see : — first, that the previously-recognized agency
of water was conceived to act, not as by Werner, after a
manner of which we have no experience, but after a manner
daily displayed to us ; and secondly, that the igneous agency,
before considered only as originating special formations,
was recognized as a universal agency, but assumed to act in
an unproved way. Werner’s sole process Hutton developed
from the catastrophic and inexplicable into the uniform and
explicable ! while that antagonistic second process, of which
he first adequately estimated the importance, was regarded
by him as a catastrophic one, and was not assimilated to
known processes — not explained. We have here to note,
however, that the facts collected and provisionally arranged
in conformity with Werner’s theory, served, after a time, to
establish Hutton’s more rational theory — in so far, at least,
as aqueous formations are concerned ! while the doctrine of
periodic subterranean convulsions, crudely as it was con-
ceived by Hutton, was a temporary generalization needful
as a step towards the theory of igneous action.

Since Hutton’s time, the development of geological
thought has gone still further in the same direction. These
early sweeping doctrines have received additional qualifica-
tions. It has been discovered that more numerous and
more heterogeneous agencies have been at work, than was
at first believed. The conception of igneous action has
been rationalized, as the conception of aqueous action had
previously been. The gratuitous assumption that vast eleva-
tions suddenly occurred after long intervals of quiescence,
has grown into the consistent theory, that islands and

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY,.

197

continents are the accumulated results of successive small
upheavals, like those experienced in ordinary earthquakes.
To speak more specifically, wo find, in the first place, that
instead of assuming the denudation produced by rain and
rivers; to he the sole means of wearing down lands and pro-
ducing their irregularities of surface, geologists now see that
denudation is only a part-cause of such irregularities; and
further, that the new strata deposited at the bottom of the
sea, are not the products of river-sediment solely, hut are in
part due to the actions of waves and tidal currents on the
coasts. In the second place, we find that Hutton's con-
ception of upheaval by subterranean forces, has not only
been modified by assimilating these subterranean forces to
ordinary earthquake-forces; but modern inquiries have
.shown that, besides elevations of surface, subsidences are
thus produced ; that local upheavals, as well as the general
upheavals which raise continents, come within the same
category ; and that all these changes are probably conse-
quent on the progressive collapse of the Earth’s crust upon
its cooling and contracting nucleus. In the third place,
we find that beyond these two great antagonistic agencies,
modern Geology recognizes sundry minor ones : those of
glaciers and icebergs, those of coral-polypes ; those of
Protozoa having siliceous or calcareous shells — each of which
agencies, insignificant as it seems, is found capable of slowly
working terrestrial changes of considerable magnitude.
Thus, then, the recent progress of Geology has been a still
further departure from primitive conceptions. Instead of
one catastrophic cause, once in universal action, as supposed
by Werner-— instead of one general continuous cause, antago-
nized at long intervals by a catastrophic cause, as taught by
Hutton ; we now recognize several causes, all more or less
general and continuous. We no longer resort to hypo-
thetical agencies to explain the phenomena displayed by the
Earth’s crust ; but we are day by day more clearly perceiv-
ing that these phenomena have arisen from forces like those

m

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY,

now at work, which have acted in all varieties of combina-
tion., through immeasurable periods of time.

Having thus briefly traced the evolution of geologic
science, and noted its present form, let us go on to observe
the way in which it is still swayed by the crude hypotheses
it set out with; so that even now, doctrines long since
abandoned as untenable in theory, continue in practice to
mould the ideas of geologists, and to foster sundry beliefs
that are logically indefensible. We shall see, both how
those simple sweeping conceptions with which the science
commenced, are those which every student is apt at first to
seize hold of, and how several influences conspire to main-
tain the twist thus resulting — how .the original nomenclature
of periods and formations necessarily keeps alive the
original implications ; and how the need for arranging
new data in some order, results in their being thrust into
the old classification, unless their incongruity with it is
very glaring. A few facts will best prepare the way
for criticism.

Up to 1889 it was inferred, from their crystalline
character, that the metamorphic rocks of Anglesea Were
more ancient than any rocks of the adjacent main land ;
hut it has since been shown that they are of the same
age with the slates and grits of Carnarvon and Merioneth.
Again, slaty cleavage having been first found only in the
lowest rocks, was taken as an indication of the highest
antiquity: whence resulted serious mistakes; for this
mineral characteristic is now known to occur in the
Carboniferous system. Once more, certain red conglome-
rates and grits on the north-west coast of Scotland, long
supposed from their lithological aspect to belong to the
Old Red Sandstone, are now identified with the Lower
Silurians. These are a few instances of the small trust to be
placed in mineral qualities, as evidence of tho ages or
relative positions of strata. From the recently-published

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY.

199

ili ml edition of Siluria, may bo culled numerous facts of
like implication. Sir II. Murchison considers it ascertained,
that the siliceous Stiper stones of Shropshire are the
equivalents of the Tremadoct slates of North Wales.
Judged by their fossils, Bala slate and limestone are of
the same age as the Caradoc sandstone, lying forty miles
off. In Radnorshire, the formation classed as upper
Llandovery rock, is described at different spots, as " sand-
stone or conglomerate/* “ impure limestone,” " hard coarse
grits,” "siliceous grit a considerable variation , for so
small an area as that of a county. Certain sandy beds on
the left bank of the Towy, which Sir R. Murchison had, in
his Silurian System, classed as Caradoc sandstone (evidently
from their mineral characters), he now finds, from their
fossils, belong to the Llandeilo formation. Nevertheless,
inferences from mineral characters are still habitually drawn
and received. Though Siluria, in common with other
geological works, supplies numerous proofs that rocks of the
same age are often of widely-different composition a few miles
off, while rocks of widely-different ages are often of similar
composition; and though Sir R. Murchison shows us, as in
the case just cited, that he has himself in past times been
misled by trusting to lithological evidence ; yet his reasoning
all through Siluria, shows that he still thinks it natural to
expect formations of the same age to be chemically similar,
even in remote regions. For example, in treating of the
Silurian rocks of South Scotland, he says : — " When travers-
ing the tract between Dumfries and Moffat, in 1850, it
occurred to me, that the dull reddish or purple sandstone and
schist to the north of the former town, which so resembled
the bottom rocks of Longmynd, Llanberis, and St. David’s,
would prove to be of the same age ;” and further on, he
again insists upon the fact that these strata " are absolutely
of the same composition as the bottom rocks of the Silurian
region.” On this unity of mineral character it is, that
this Scottish formation is concluded to be contemporaneous

200

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY.

with the lowest formations in Wales; for the scant}?
paleontological evidence suffices for neither proof nor
disproof. How, had there been a continuity of like strata
in like order between Wales and Scotland, there might
have been little to criticize in this conclusion. But since
Sir R. Murchison himself admits, that in Westmoreland
and Cumberland, some members of the system “assume
a lithological aspect different from what they maintain
in the Silurian and Welsh region,” there seems no reason
to expect mineralogical continuity in Scotland. Obviously,
therefore, the assumption that these Scottish formations are
of the same age with the Longmynd of Shropshire, implies
the latent belief that certain mineral characters indicate
certain eras. Bar more striking instances, however, of the
influence of this latent belief remain to be given. Hot in
such comparatively near districts as the Scottish lowlands
only, does Sir R. Murchison expect a repetition of the
Longmynd strata; hut in the Rhenish provinces, certain
“quartzose flagstones and grits, like those of the Long-
mynd,” are seemingly concluded to be of contemporaneous
origin, because of their likeness. “ Quartzites in roofing-
slates with a greenish tinge that reminded us of the lower
slates of Cumberland and Westmoreland,” are evidently
suspected to be of the same age. In Russia, he remarks
that the carboniferous limestones “are overlaid along the
western edge of the Ural chain by sandstones and grits,
which occupy much the same place in the general series as
the millstone grit of England;” and in calling this group,
as he does, the “representative of the millstone grit,” Sir
R. Murchison clearly shows that he thinks likeness of
mineral composition some evidence of equivalence in time,
even at that great distance. Hay, on the flanks of the
Andes and in the United States, such similarities are looked
for, and considered as significant of certain ages. Not that
Sir R. Murchison contends theoretically for this relation
between lithological character and date. Bor on the page

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY, 201

from which we have just quoted ( Siluria , p. 887); he says,
that “ whilst tlie soft Lower Silurian clays and sands of
St. Petersburg have their equivalents in the hard schists
and quartz rocks with gold veins in the heart of the Ural
mountains; the equally soft red and green Devonian marls
of tlie Valdai Hills are represented on the western flank of
that chain by hard, contorted, and fractured limestones.**
But these, and other such admissions, seem to go for little.
While himself asserting that the Potsdam-sandstone of
North America, the Lingula-flags of England, and the
alum-slates of Scandinavia are of the same period — while
fully aware that among the Silurian formations of Wales,
there are oolitic strata like those of secondary age; yet his
reasoning is more or less coloured by the assumption, that
formations of like qualities probably belong to the same era.
Is it not manifest, then, that the exploded hypothesis of
Werner continues to influence geological speculation?

“But,** it will perhaps be said, “though individual strata
are not continuous over large areas, yet systems of strata
are. Though within a few miles the same bed gradually
passes from clay into sand, or thins out and disappears, yet
the group of strata to which it belongs does not do so;
but maintains in remote regions the same relations to
other groups.**

This is the generally-cnrrent belief. On this assumption
the received geological classifications appear to be framed.
The Silurian system, the Devonian system, the Cai'honi-
ferous system, etc., are set down in our books as groups of
formations which everywhere succeed each other in a given
order ; and are severally everywhere of the same age.
Though it may not be asserted that these successive systems
are universal ; yet it seems to be tacitly assumed that they
are. In North and South America; in Asia, in Australia,
sets of strata are assimilated to one or other of these
groups; and their possession of certain mineral characters
and a certain order of superposition are among the reasons

202

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY,

assigned for so assimilating them, Though, probably, no
competent geologist would contend that the European
classification of strata is applicable to the globe as a whole;
yet most, if not all geologists, write as though it were.
Among readers of works on Geology, nine out of ten carry
away the impression that the divisions. Primary, Secondary
and Tertiary, are of absolute and uniform application; that
these great divisions are separable into subdivisions, each
of which is definitely distinguishable from the rest, and is
everywhere recognizable by its characters as such or such;
and that in all parts of the Earth, these minor systems
severally began and ended at the same time. When they
meet with the term “Carboniferous era,” they take for
granted that it was an era universally carboniferous — that
it was, what Hugh Miller indeed actually describes it, an era
when the Earth bore a vegetation far more luxuriant than
it has since done ; and were they in any of our colonies to
meet with a coal-bed, they would conclude that, as a matter
of course, it was of the same age as the English coal-beds.

.Now this belief that geologic “systems” are universal, is
no more tenable than the other. It is just as absurd when
considered a priori; audit is equally inconsistent with the
facts. Though some series of strata classed together as
Oolite, may range over a wider district than any one
stratum of the series; yet we have but to ask what were the
circumstances under which it was deposited, to see that the
Oolitic series, like one of its individual strata, must be of
local origin; and that there is not likely to be anywhere
else, a series which corresponds, either in its characters or
in its commencement and termination. For the formation
of such a series implies an area of subsidence, in whic-h its
component beds were thrown down. Every area of sub-
sidence is necessarily limited; and to suppose that there
exist elsewhere groups of beds completely answering to
those known as Oolite, is to suppose that, in contempor-
aneous areas of subsidence, like processes were going on.

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY. 208

Tli ere is so reason to suppose this; but good reason to
suppose the reverse. That in contemporaneous areas of
subsidence throughout the globe, the conditions would cause
the formation of Oolite, is an assumption which no modern
geologist would openly make. He would say that the
equivalent series; of beds found elsewhere, would probably
be of dissimilar mineral character. Moreover, in these
contemporaneous areas of subsidence, the processes going
on would not only be different in kind; but in no two cases
would they be likely to agree in their commencements and
terminations. The probabilities are greatly against separate
portions' of the Earth’s surface beginning to subside at
the same time, and ceasing to subside at the same time — a
coincidence which alone could produce equivalent groups of
strata. Subsidences in different places begin and end with
utter irregularity; and hence the groups of strata thrown
down in them can but rarely correspond. Measured
against each other in time, their limits must disagree. On
turning to the evidence, we find that it daily tends more
and more to justify these a priori positions. Take, as an
example, the Old Red Sandstone system. In the north of
England this is represented by a single stratum of con-
glomerate. In Herefordshire, Worcestershire, and Shrop-
shire, it expands into a series of strata from eight to ten
thousand feet thick, made up of conglomerates, red, green,
and white sandstones, red, green, and spotted marls, and
concretionary limestones. To the south-west, as between
Caermarthen and Pembroke, these Old Red Sandstone
strata exhibit considerable lithological changes; on the
other side of the Bristol Channel, they display further
changes in mineral characters ; while in South Devon and
Cornwall, the equivalent strata, consisting chiefly of slates,
schists, and limestones, are so wholly different, that they
were for a long time classed as Silurian. When we thus
see that in certain directions the whole group of deposits
thins out, and that its mineral characters change within

'204

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY.

moderate distances; does it not "become clear that the
whole group of deposits was a local one? And when we
hud, in other regions, formations analogous to these Old
Bed Sandstone or Devonian formations, is it certain — is it
even probable — that they severally began and ended at the
same time with them? Should it not require overwhelming
evidence to make us believe as much?

Tet so strongly is geological speculation swayed by the
tendency to regard the phenomena as general instead of
local, that even those most on their guard against it seem
unable to escape its influence. At page 158 of his
Principles of Geology, Sir Charles Lyell says:—

“A group of red marl and red sandstone, containing salt and gypsnm,
being interposed in England between the Lias and the Coal, all other red
marls and sandstones, associated some of them with salt, and others with
gypsum, and occurring not only in different parts of Europe* but in North
America, Peru, India, the salt deserts of Asia, those of Africa — in a word, in
every quarter of the globe, were referred to one and the same period. . .

. . . It was in vain to urge as an objection the improbability of the
hypothesis which implies that all the moving waters on the globe were once
simultaneously charged with sediment of a red colour. But the rashness of
pretending to identify, in age, all the red sandstones and maria in question,
has at length been sufficiently exposed, by the discovery that, even in
Europe, they belong decidedly to many different epochs.”

Nevertheless, while in this and many kindred- passages
Sir G. Lyell protests against the bias here illustrated, he
seems himself not completely free from it. Though he
utterly rejects the old hypothesis that all over the Earth
the same continuous strata lie one upon another in regular
order, like the coats of an onion, ho still writes as though
geologic " systems- ” do thus succeed each other. A reader
of his Manual would certainly suppose him to believe, that
the Primary ejioch ended, and the secondary epoch began,
all over the world at the same time — that these terms
really correspond to distinct universal eras. When he
assumes, as he does, that the division between Cambrian:
and Lower Silurian in America, answers chronologically
to the division between Cambrian and Lower Silurian in

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY. 205

Wales — when be takes for granted that the partings of
Lower from Middle Silurian, and of Middle Silurian from
Upper, in the one region, are of the same dates as the like
partings in the other region ; does it not seem that he be-
lieves geologic “systems” to be universal, in the sense
that their separations were in all places contemporaneous?
Though he would, doubtless, disown this as an article of
faith, is not his thinking unconsciously influenced by it ?
Must we not say that, though the onion-coat hypothesis is
dead, its spirit is traceable, under a transcendental form,
even in the conclusions of its antagonists ?

Let us now consider another leading geological doctrine,
—-the doctrine that strata of the same age contain like
fossils ; and that, therefore, the age and relative position
of any stratum maybe known by its fossils. "While the
theory that strata of like mineral characters were every-
where deposited simultaneously, has been ostensibly aban-
doned, there has been accepted the theory that in each
geologic epoch similar plants and animals existed every-
where ; and that, therefore, the epoch to which any
formation belongs may be known by the organic remains
contained in the formation. Though, perhaps, no leading
geologist would openly commit himself to an unqualified
assertion of this theory, yet it is tacitly assumed in current
geological reasoning.

This theory, however, is scarcely more tenable than the
other. It cannot be concluded with any certainty, that for-
mations in which similar organic remains are found, were of
contemporaneous origin ; nor can it be safely concluded that
strata containing different organic remains are of different
ages. To most readers these will be startling propositions ;
but they are fully admitted by the highest authorities. Sir
Charles Lyell confesses that the test of organic remains
must be used “under very much the same restrictions as
the test of mineral composition / 5 Sir Henry de la Beche,

206 ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY.

who variously illustrates this truth, remarks on tlio great
'■incongruity tliere must be between the fossils of our car-
boniferous rocks and tliose of tlie marine strata deposited at
the same period. But though, in the abstract, ■the danger
of basing positive conclusions on evidence derived from
fossils, is recognized ; yet, in tlie concrete, this danger is
generally disregarded. The established convictions respect-
ing the ages of strata, have been formed in spite of it; and
by some geologists it seems altogether ignored. Through-
out his Siluria, Sir R. Murchison habitually assumes that
the same, or kindred, species, lived in all parts of the Earth
at the same time. In Russia, in Bohemia, in the United
States, in South America, strata are classed as belonging
to this or that part of the Silurian system, because of the
similar fossils contained in them— -are concluded to be
everywhere contemporaneous if they enclose a proportion
of identical or allied forms. In Russia the relative position
of a stratum is inferred from the fact that, along’ with some
Wenlock forms, it yields the Pentamerus oblong m. Certain
crustaceans called Ewrypteri, being characteristic of the
Upper Ludlow reck, it is remarked that “large Eurypteri
occur m a so-called black grey-wacke slate in Westmore-
land, in Oneida County, New York, which will probably be
found to be on the parallel of the Upper Ludlow rock : >}
in which word “ probably,”, wo see both how dominant is
this belief of universal distribution of similar creatures at
the same period, and how apt this belief is to make its
own proof, by raising the expectation that the ages are
identical when the forms are alike. Besides thus inter-
preting' the formations of Russia, England, and America,
Sir R. Murchison thus interprets those of the antipodes.
Fossils from Victoria Colony, ho agrees with the Govern-
ment-surveyor in classing as of Lower Silurian or Llando-
very age : that is, ho takes for granted that when certain
crustaceans and mollusks wore living in Wales, certain
similar crustaceans and mollusks were living in Australia.

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY.

207

Yet tlie improbability of tins assumption may be readily
shown from Sir R. Murchison’s own facts. If, as he points
out, the fossil crustaceans of the uppermost Silurian rocks
in Lanarkshire are, “with one doubtful exception,” all
“distinct from any of the forms known on the same
horizon in England; ” how can it be fairly presumed that
the forms existing on the other side of the Earth during
the Silurian period, were nearly allied to those existing
here ? Not only, indeed, do Sir R. Murchison’s conclusions
tacitly assume this doctrine of universal distribution, but he
distinctly enunciates it. “ The mere presence of a grapto-
lite,” he says, “ will at once decide that the enclosing rock
is Silurian ; ” and he says this, notwithstanding repeated
warnings against such generalizations. During the progress
of Geology, it has over and over again happened that a
particular fossil, long considered characteristic of a par-
ticular formation, has been afterwards discovered in other
formations. Until some twelve years ago, Gconiatites had
not been found lower than the Devonian rocks; but now,
in Bohemia, they have been found in rocks classed as Silu-
rian. Quite recently, the Orihoceras , previously supposed
to be a type exclusively palceozoic, has been detected along
with mesozoic Ammonites and Belemnites. Yet hosts of
such experiences fail to extinguish the assumption, that the
age of a stratum may he determined by the occurrence in
it of a single fossil form. Nay, this assumption survives
evidence of even a still more destructive kind. Referring
to the Silurian system in Western Ireland, Sir R. Murchison
says, “ in the beds near Maam, Professor Nicol and myself
collected remains, some of which would he considered
Lower, and others Upper, Silurian ; ” and he then names
sundry fossils which, in England, belong to the summit of
the Ludlow rocks, or highest Silurian strata ; “ some, which
elsewhere are known only in rocks of Llandovery age” — that
is, of middle Silurian age; and somo, only before known in
Lower Silurian strata, not far above the most ancient
10

208

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY.

fossiliferous "beds. How what do these facts prove?
Clearly, they prove that species which in Wales are separ-
ated by strata more than twenty thousand feet deep, and
therefore seem to belong to periods far more remote from
each other, were really co-existent. They prove that the
rnollusks and crinoids held to be characteristic of early
Silurian strata, and supposed to have become extinct long
before the rnollusks and crinoids of the later Silurian strata
came into existence, were really flourishing at the same
time with these last; and that these last possibly date
back to as early a period as the first. They prove that not
only the mineral characters of sedimentary formations, hut
also the collections of organic forms they contain, depend,
to a great extent, on local circumstances. They prove that
the fossils met with in any series of strata, cannot be taken
as representing anything like the whole Flora and Fauna
of the period they belong to. In brief, they throw great
doubt upon numerous geological generalizations.
Notwithstanding facts like these, and notwithstanding
his avowed opinion that the test of organic remains must be
used “ under very much the same restrictions as the test of
mineral composition,” Sir Charles Lyell, too, considers
sundry positive conclusions to be justified by this test : even,
where the community of fossils is slight and the distance
great. Having decided that in various places in Europe,
middle Eocene strata are distinguished by Nummulites; her
infers, without any other assigned evidence, that wherever
Nummulites are. found — in Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, in
Persia, Scinde, Cutch, Eastern Bengal, and the frontiers of
China — the containing formation is Middle Eocene. And from
this inference he draws the following important corollary
“ When we have once arrived at the conviction that the nummulilic for-
mation occupies a middle place in the Eocene series, we are struck with the
comparatively modern date to which some of the greatest revolutions in the
physical geography of Europe, Asia, and northern Africa must be referred.
Ah the mountain chains, such as the Alps, Pyrenees, Carpathians, and
Himalayas, into the composition of whose central and loftiest parts tho

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY. 209

nummulltie strata enter bodily, could have had no existence till after the
Middle Eocene period.” — Manual, p. 232.

A. still more marked case follows on tlie next page.
Because a certain bed at Claiborne in Alabama, which con-
tains “four hundred species of marine shells/’ includes
among them the Gardita jplanicosta , “ and some others
identical with European species, or very nearly allied to
them/’ Sir C. Lyell says it is “highly probable the Claiborne
beds agree in age with the central or Bracklesham group
of England.” When we find contemporaneity alleged on
the strength of a community no greater than that which
sometimes exists between strata of widely-different ages in
the same country, it seems as though the above-quoted
caution had been forgotten. It appears to be assumed for
the occasion, that species which had a wide range in space
had a narrow range in time; which is the reverse of the
fact. The tendency to systematize overrides the evidence,
and thrusts Nature into a formula too rigid to fit her
endless variety.

“But,” it may be urged, “surely, when in different
places the order of superposition, the mineral characters,
and the fossils, agree, it may safely be concluded that the
formations thus corresponding date back to the same time.
If, for example, the United States display a succession of
Silurian, Devonian, and Carboniferous systems, lithologically
similarto those known here by those names, and characterized
by like fossils, it is a fair inference that these groups of
strata were severally being deposited in America wbilo
their equivalents were being deposited here.”

On this position, which seems a strong one, we have, in
the first place, to remark, that the evidence of correspondence
is always more or less suspicious. We have already adverted
to the several “ idols ” — if we may use Bacon’s metaphor
• — to which geologists unconsciously sacrifice, when inter-
preting the structures of unexplored regions. Carrying
with them the classification of strata existing in Europe,

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ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY.

and assuming that groups of strata in other parts of the
world must answer to some of the groups of strata known
here, they are necessarily prone to assert parallelism on
insufficient evidence. They scarcely entertain the previous
question, whether the formations they are examining have
or have not any European equivalents; hut the question
is — with which of the European series shall they he
classed?— with which do they most agree ? — from which do
they differ least? And this being the mode of inquiry,
there is apt to result great laxity of interpretation. How
lax the interpretation really is, may be readily shown.
When strata are discontinuous, as between Europe and
America, no evidence can be derived from the order of
superposition, apart from mineral characters and organic
remains; for, unless strata can be continuously traced,
mineral characters and organic remains afford the only
means of classing them as such or such. As to the test of
mineral characters, we have seen that it is almost worthless;
and no modern geologist would dare to say it should be
relied on. If the Old lied Sandstone series in mid-England,
differs wholly in lithological aspect from the equivalent series
in South Devon, it is clear that similarities of texture and
composition cannot justify us in classing a system of strata
in another quarter of the globe with some European system.
The test of fossils is the only one that remains; and with
how little strictness this test is applied, one case will show.
Of forty-six species of British Devonian corals, only six
occur in America ; and this, notwithstanding the wide range
which the Anihozoa are known to have. Similarly of the
Molhma and Grinoidea, it appears that, while there are
sundry genera found in America which are found here,
there are scarcely any of the same species. And Sir Charles
Lyell admits that “ the difficulty of deciding on tlio exact
parallelism of the New York subdivisions, as above
enumerated, with the members of the European Devonian,
is very great, so few are the species in common.” Yet it

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY.

211

is on the strength of community of fossils, that the whole
Devonian series of the United States is assumed to bo
contemporaneous with the whole Devonian series of England.
And it is partly on the ground that the Devonian of the
United States corresponds in time with our own Devonian,
that Sir Charles Lyell concludes the superjacent coal-
measures of the two countries to be of the same age. Is
it not, then, as we said, that the evidence in these cases is
very suspicions ? Should it be replied, as it may fairly be,
that this correspondence from which the synchronism of
distant formations is inferred, is not a correspondence
between particular species or particular genera, but be-
tween the general characters of the contained assemblages
of fossils — between the facies of the two Faunas ; the
rejoinder is, that though such correspondence is a stronger
evidence of synchronism it is still an insufficient one. To
infer synchronism from such correspondence, involves the
postulate that throughout each geologic era there has
habitually existed a recognizable similarity between the
groups of organic forms inhabiting all the different parts
of the Earth ; and that the causes which have in one part
of the Earth changed the organic forms into those which
characterize the next era, have simultaneously acted in
all other parts of the Earth, in such ways as to produce
parallel changes of their organic forms. Now this is not
only a large assumption to make; but it is an assump-
tion contrary to probability. The probability is, that
the causes which have changed Faunas have been local
rather than universal ; that hence while the Faunas of
some regions have been rapidly changing, those of others
have been almost quiescent; and that when those of
others have been changed, it has been, not in such ways
as to maintain parallelism, but in such ways as to pro-
duce divergence.

.Even supposing, however, that districts some hundreds
of miles apart, furnished groups of strata which completely

212 ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY.

agreed in their order of superposition, their mineral
characters, and their fossils, we should still have inadequate
proof of contemporaneity. For there are conditions, very
likely to occur, under which such groups might differ widely
in age. If there Be a continent of which the strata crop
out on the surface obliquely to the line of coast' — running,
say, west-north-west, while the coast runs east and west—
it is clear that each group of strata will crop out on the
beach at a particular part of the coast; that further west
the next group of strata will crop ont on the beach ; and so
continuously. As the localization of marine plants and
animals, is in a considerable degree determined by the
natures of the rocks and their detritus, it follows that each
part of this coast will have its more or less distinct Flora
and Fauna. What now must result from the action of the
waves in the course of a geologic epoch ? As the sea makes
slow inroads on the land, the place at which each group of
strata crops out on the beach will gradually move towards
the west : its distinctive fish, mollusks, crustaceans, and
sea-weeds, migrating with it. Further, the detritus of each
of these groups of strata will, as tlio point of outcrop moves
westwards, be deposited over the detritus of the group in
advance of it. And the consequence of these actions, carried
on for one of those enormous periods which a geologic
change takes, will be that, corresponding to each eastern
stratum, there will arise a stratum far to the west, which,
though occupying the same position relatively to other beds,
formed of like materials, and containing like fossils, will
yet be perhaps a million years later in date.

But the illegitimacy, or at any rate the great doubtful-
ness, of many current geological inferences, is best seen
when we contemplate terrestrial changes now going on ;
and ask how far such inferences are countenanced by them.
If we carry ont rigorously the modern method of interpret-
ing geological phenomena, which Sir Charles Lyell has

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ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY.

done so much to establish — that of referring them to causes
like those at present in action — we cannot fail to see how
improbable are sundiy of the received conclusions.

Along each shore which is being worn away by the
waves, there are being formed mud, sand, and pebbles.
This detritus has, in each locality, a more or less special
character j determined by the nature of the strata destroyed.
In the English Channel it is not the same as in the Irish
Channel; on the east coast of Ireland it is not the same
as on the west coast ; and so throughout. At the mouth
of each great river, there is being deposited sediment
differing more or less from that deposited at the mouths
of other rivers in colour and quality,* forming strata
which are here red, there yellow, and elsewhere brown,
grey, or dirty white. Besides which various formations;
going on in deltas and along shores, there are some much
wider, and still more strongly contrasted, formations. At
the bottom of the iEgean Sea, there is accumulating a
bed of Pteropod shells, which will eventually, no doubt, be-
come a calcareous rock. For some hundreds of thousands
of square miles, the ocean-bed between Great Britain
and North America, is being covered with a stratum of
chalk; and over large areas in the Pacific, there are going
on deposits of coralline limestone. Thus, there are at this
moment being* produced in different places multitudinous
strata, differing from one another in lithological characters.
Name at random any part of the sea-bottom, and ask
whether the deposit there taking place is like the deposit
taking place at some distant part of the sea-bottom, and
the alinost-certainly correct answer will be- — No. The
chances are not in favour of similarity, but against it — •
many to one against it.

In the order of superposition of strata there is being
established a like variety. Each region of the Earth’s
surface has its special history of elevations, subsidences,
periods of rest: and this history in no case fits chronologi-

214 * :

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY.

eally with, the history of any other portion. River deltas
are now being thrown down on formations of different ages :
some very ancient, some quite modern. While here there
has been deposited a series of beds many hundreds of feet
thick, there has' elsewhere been deposited but a single bed
of fine mud. While one region of the Earth's crust, con-
tinuing for a vast epoch above the surface of the ocean,
bears record of no changes save those resulting from
denudation ; another region of the Barth's crust gives
proof of sundry changes of level, with their several result-
ing masses of stratified detritus. If anything is to be
judged from current processes, we must infer, not only that
everywhere the succession of sedimentary formations differs
more or less from the succession elsewhere; but also that
in each place, there exist groups of strata to which many
other places have no equivalents.

With respect to the organic bodies imbedded in forma-
tions now in progress, a like truth is equally manifest, if not
more manifest. Even along the same coast, within moderate
distances, the forms of life differ very considerably ; and
they differ much more on coasts that are remote from
one another. Again, dissimilar creatures which a ro living
together near the same shore, do not leave their remains
in the same beds of sediment. For instance, at the bottom
of the Adriatic, where the prevailing currents cause the
deposits to be here of mud, and there of calcareous matter,
it is proved that different species of co-existing shells are
being buried in these respective formations. On our own
coasts, the marine remains found a few miles from shore,
in banks whore fish congregate, are different from those
found close to the shore, where; littoral species flourish.
A large proportion of aquatic creatures have structures
which do not admit of fossilization ; while of the rest, the
great majority are destroyed, when dead; by various kinds
of scavengers. So that no one deposit near our shores can
contain anything like a true representation of the Banna of

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY.

215

the surrounding sea; much less of the co-existing Faunas
of other seas in the same latitude; and still less of the
Faunas of seas in distant latitudes. Were it not that
the assertion seems needful, it would be almost absurd to
say, that the organic remains now being buried in the
Dogger Bank, can tell us next to nothing about the fish,
crustaceans, mollnsks, and corals, which a, re being buried
in the Bay of Bengal. Still stronger is the argument in
the case of terrestrial life. With more numerous and
greater contrasts between the types inhabiting one continent
and those inhabiting another, there is a far more imperfect
registry of them. Schouw marks out on the Earth more
than twenty botanical regions, occupied by groups of forms
so distinct, that, if fossilized, geologists would scarcely be
disposed to refer them all to the same period. Of Faunas,
the Arctic differs from the Temperate ; the Temperate from
the Tropical; and the South Temperate from the North
Temperate. Nay, in the South Temperate Zone itself, the
two regions of South Africa and South America are uulike
in their mammals, birds, reptiles, fishes, mollusks, insects.
The shells and bones now lying at the bottoms of lakes and
estuaries in these several regions, have certainly not that
similarity which is usually looked for in those of contem-
poraneous strata; and the recent forms exhumed in any
one of these regions would very untruly represent the present
Flora and F auna of the Earth. In conformity with the cur-
rent style of geological reasoning, an exhaustive examination
of deposits in the Arctic circle, might be held to prove that
though at this period there were sundry mammals existing,
there were no reptiles ; while the absence of mammals in
the deposits of the Gralapagos Archipelago, where there are
plenty of reptiles, might be held to prove the reverse. And
at the same time, from the formations extending for two
thousand miles along the great ban*ier-reef of Australia —
formations in which are imbedded nothing but corals,
echinoderms, mollusks, crustaceans, and fish, along with an

216

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY,

occasional turtle, or bird, or cetacean — it might "be inferred
that there lived in our epoch neither terrestrial reptiles, nor
terrestrial mammals. The mention of Australia, indeed,
suggests an illustration which, even alone, would amply prove
our case. The Fauna of this region differs widely from any-
th at is found elsewhere. On land, all the indigenous mam-
mals, except hats, belong to the lowest, or implacenfcal
division ; and the insects are singularly different from those
found elsewhere. The surrounding seas contain numerous
forms which are more or less strange; and among the fish
there exists a species of shark, which is the only living repre-
sentive of a genus that flourished in early geologic epochs.
If, now, the modern fossiliferous deposits of Australia were
to he examined hy one ignorant of the existing Australian
Fauna; and if he were to reason in the usual manner; he
would he very unlikely to class these deposits with those of
the present time. How, then, can we place confidence in the
tacit assumption that certain formations in remote parts of the
Earth are referable to the same period, because the organic
remains contained in them display a certain community
of character ? or that certain others are referable to different
periods, because the facies of their Faunas are different ?

“ But,” it will be replied, “ in past eras the same, or simi-
lar, organic forms were more widely distributed than now.”
It may be so ; but the evidence adduced by no means proves
it. The argument by which this conclusion is reached, runs
a risk of being quoted as an example of reasoning in a circle.
As already pointed out, between formations in remote regions
the accepted test of equivalence is community of fossils.
If, then, the contemporaneity of remote formations is con-
cluded frofn. the likeness of their fossils ; how can it be said
that similar plants and animals were once more widely distri-
buted, because they are found in contemporaneous strata in
remote regions ? Is not the fallacy manifest ? Even sup-
posing there were no such fatal objection as this, the evidence
commonly assigned would still be insufficient. Eor we must

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY. 2 f 7

bear in mind that the community of organic remains
usually thought sufficient proof of correspondence in time,
is a very imperfect community. When the compared sedi-
mentary beds are far apart, it is scarcely expected that there
will be many species common to the two : it is enough if
there be discovered a considerable number of common
genera. Now had it been proved that throughout geologic
time, each genus lived but for a short . period — a period
measured by a single group of strata — something might be
inferred. But what if we learn that many of the same
genera continued to exist throughout enormous epochs,
measured by several vast systems of strata? “Among
molluscs, the genera Avicula, Modiola , Terebratula, Lin~
gula, and Orbicula, are found from the Silurian rocks
upwards to the present day.” If, then, between the
lowest fossiliferous formations and the most recent, there
exists this degree of community ; must we not infer that
there will probably often exist a great degree of community
between strata that are far from contemporaneous ?

Thus the reasoning from which it is concluded that
similar organic forms were once more widely spread than
now, is doubly fallacious; and, consequently, the classi-
fications of foreign strata based on the conclusion are
untrustworthy. Judging from the present distribution of
life, we cannot expect to find similar remains in geograph-
ically remote strata of the same age ; and where, between
the fossils of geographically remote strata, we do find much
similarity, it is probably due rather to likeness of conditions
than to contemporaneity. If from causes and effects such
as we now witness, we reason back to the causes and effects
of past epochs, we discover inadequate warrant .for sundry
of the received doctrines. Seeing, as we do, that in large
areas of the Pacific this is a period characterized by
abundance of corals; that in the North Atlantic it is a
period in which a great chalk-deposit is being formed;
and that in the valley of the Mississippi it is a period of

218

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY, ,

new coal-basins — seeing also, as we do, that in one extensive
continent this is peculiarly* an era of implacental mammals,
and that in another extensive continent it is peculiarly an
era of placental mammals ; we have good reason to
hesitate before accepting these sweeping generalizations
which are based on a cursory examination of strata
occupying but a tenth part of the Earth’s surface.

At the outset, this article was to have been a review of
the works of Hugh Miller ; but it has grown into something*
much more general. Nevertheless, the remaining two
doctrines which we propose to criticize, may conveniently
be treated in connexion with his name, as that of one who
fully committed himself to them. And first, a few words
respecting his position.

That he was a man whose life was one of meritorious
achievement, every one knows. That he was a diligent
and successful working geologist, scarcely needs saying.
That with indomitable perseverance he struggled up front
obscurity to a place in the world of literature and science,
shows him to have been highly endowed in character and
intelligence. And that lie had a remarkable power of
presenting his facts and arguments in an attractive form,
a glance at any of Ms books will quickly prove. By all
means, let us respect him as a man of activity and sagacity,
joined with a large amount of poetry. But while saying
this we must add, that his imputation stands by no means
so high in the scientific world as in the world at large.
Partly from the fact that our Scotch neighbours are in the
habit of blowing the trumpet rather loudly before their
notabilities— partly because the charming* style in which
his books are written has gained him a large circle of
readers— partly, perhaps, through a praiseworthy sympathy
with him as a self-made man; Hugh Miller has met with
an amount of applause which, little as we wish to diminish
it, must not be allowed to blind the public to his defects as

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY, 219

a man of science. The truth is, he was so far committed
to a foregone conclusion, that he could not become a
philosophical geologist. He might be aptly described as a
theologian studying geology. The dominant idea with
which he wrote, may be seen in the titles of two of
his books — Footprints of the Creator, — The Testimony
of the Bocks. Regarding geological facts as evidence for
or against certain religious conclusions, it was scarcely
possible for him to deal with geological facts impartially.
His ruling aim was to disprove the Development Hypo-
thesis, the assumed implications of which were repugnant
to him ; and in proportion to the strength of his feeling,
was the one-sidedness of his reasoning. He admitted that
te God might as certainly have originated the species by a
law of development, as he maintains it by a law of develop-
ment ; — the existence of a First Great Cause is as perfectly
compatible with the one scheme as with the other.” Never-
theless, he considered the hypothesis at variance with
Christianity ; and therefore combated with it. He appar-
ently overlooked the fact, that the doctrines of geology in
general, as held by himself, had been rejected by many on
similar grounds; and that he had himself been repeatedly
attacked for his anti-Christian teachings. He seems not
to have perceived that, just as liis antagonists were wrong
in condemning as irreligious, theories which he saw were
not irreligious; so might he be wrong in condemning, on
like grounds, the Theory of Evolution. In brief, lie fell
short of that highest faith which knows that all truths
must harmonize; and which is, therefore, content trustfully
to follow the evidence whithersoever it leads.

Of course it is impossible to criticize his works without
entering on tliis'great question to which he chiefly devoted
himself. The two remaining doctrines to be here discussed,
bear directly on this question; and, as above said, we
propose to treat them in connexion with Hugh Miller's
name, because, throughout his reasonings, he assumes their

220

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY.

truth. Let it not be supposed, however, that we shall
aim to prove what he has aimed to disprove. While wo
purpose showing that his geological arguments against the"
Development Hypothesis are based on invalid assumptions ;
we do not purpose showing that the geological arguments
urged in support of it are based on valid assumptions. We
hope to make it apparent that the geological evidence at
present obtained, is insufficient for either side ; further,
that there seems little probability that sufficient evidence
will ever be obtained ; and that if the question is eventually
decided, it must be decided on other than geological grounds.

The first of the current doctrines to which we have just
referred, is, that there occur in the serial records of former
life on our planet, two great blanks ; whence it is inferred
that, on at least two occasions, the previously existing inhab-
itants of the Earth were almost wholly destroyed, and a
different class of inhabitants created. Comparing the
general life on the Earth to a thread, Hugh Miller says : —

“ It is continuous from the present time up to the commencement of the
Tertiary period; and then so abrupt a break occurs, that, with the exception
of the microscopic diatomacete, to which I last evening referred, and of one
shell and one coral, not a single species crossed the gapi On its farther or
remoter side, however, where the Secondary division closes, the inter-
mingling of species again begins, and runs on till the commencement of this
great Secondary division; and then, just where the Paleozoic division
closes, we find another abrupt break, crossed, if crossed at all, — for there
still exists some doubt on the subject,— by but two species of plant.”

These breaks are supposed to imply actual new creations
on the surface of our planet — supposed not by Hugh
Miller only, but by the majority of geologists. And the
terms Palaeozoic, Mesozoic, and Caiuozoic, arc used to
indicate these three successive systems of life. It is true
that some accept this belief with caution; knowing how
geologic research has been all along tending to fill up what
were once thought wide gaps. Sir Charles Lyell points
out that u the hiatus which exists in Great Britain between
the fossils of the Lias -and those of the Magnesian Li me-

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY.

221

stone, is supplied in Germany by tbe rich fauna and flora
of the Muschelkalk, Kouper, and Banter Sandstein, which
we know to be of a date precisely intermediate/* Again
lie remarks that “until lately the fossils of the coal-measures
were separated from those of the antecedent Silurian group
by a very abrupt and decided line of demarcation ; but
recent discoveries have brought to light in Devonshire, .
Belgium; the Eifel, and Westphalia, the remains of a fauna
of an intervening period/* And once more; he says, “we
have also in like manner had some success of late years in
diminishing the hiatus which still separates the Cretaceous
and Eocene periods in Europe/* To which let us add that,
since Hugh Miller penned the passage above quoted, the
second of the great gaps he refers to has been very con-
siderably narrowed by the discovery of strata containing
Palaeozoic genera and Mesozoic genera intermingled. Never-
theless, the occurrence of two great revolutions in the
Earth’s Flora and Eanna appears still to be held by many ;
and geologic nomenclature habitually assumes it.

Before seeking a solution of the problem thus raised, let
us glance at the several minor causes which produce
breaks in the geological succession of organic forms ; taking
first, the more general ones which modify climate, and,
therefore, the distribution of life. Among these may be
noted one which has not, wo believe, been named by
writers on the subject. "We mean that resulting from a
certain slow astronomic rhythm, by which the northern
and southern hemispheres are alternately subject to greater
extremes of temperature. In consequence of the slight
ellipticity of its orbit, the Earth’s distance from the sun
varies to the extent of some 8,000,000 of miles. At present,
the aphelion occurs at the time of our northern summer;
and the perihelion during the summer of the southern
hemisphere. In consequence, however, of that slow move-
ment of the Earth’s axis which produces the precession of
the equinoxes, this state of things will in time be reversed:

222

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY.

the Earth will be nearest to the sun during tlie summer of
the northern hemisphere, and furthest from it during fho
southern summer or northern winter. The period required
to complete the slow movement producing these changes,
is nearly 26,000 years ; and were there no modifying process,
the two hemispheres would alternately experience this
coincidence of summer with relative nearness to the sun,
during a period of 13,000 years. But there is also a still
slower change in the direction of the axis major of the
Earth's orbit; from which it results that the alternation we
have described is completed in about 21,000 years. That
is to say, if at a given time the Earth is nearest to the sun
at onr mid-summer, and furthest from the sun at our
mid-winter; then, in 10,500 years afterwards, it will bo
furthest from the sun at our mid-summer, and nearest at
our mid-winter. Now the difference between the distances
from the sun at the two extremes of this alternation,
amounts to one-thirtieth ; and hence, the difference between
the quantities of heat received from the sun on a summer’s
day under these opposite conditions amounts to one-fifteenth.
Estimating this, not with reference to the zero of our
thermometers, but with reference to the temperature of
the celestial spaces, Six* John Herschel calculates “ 23°
Fahrenheit, as the least variation of temperature under
such circumstances which can reasonably be attributed to
the actual variation of the sun’s distance.” Thus, then,
each hemisphere has at a certain epoch, a short summer of
extreme heat, followed by a long and very cold winter.
Through the slow change in the direction of the Earth’s
axis, these extremes are gradually mitigated. And at the
end of 10,500 years, there is reached the opposite state-—
a long and moderate summer, with a short and mild winter.
At present, in consequence of the predominance of sea in
the southern hemisphere, the extremes to which its astron-
omical conditions subject it, are much ameliorated ; while
the great proportion of land in the northern hemisphere.

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY. 223

tends to exaggerate such, contrast as now exists in it
between winter and summer : whence it results that the
climates of the two hemispheres are not widely unlike.
But 10,000 years hence, the northern hemisphere will
undergo annual variations of temperature far more marked
than now.

In the last edition of his Outlines' of Astronomy, Sir
John Herschel recognizes this as an element in geological
processes ; regarding it as possibly a part-cause of those
climatic changes indicated by the records of the Earth's
past. That it has had much to do with those larger
changes of climate of which we have evidence, seems
unlikely, since there is reason to think that these have
been far slower and more lasting; but that it must have
entailed a rhythmical exaggeration and mitigation of the
climates otherwise produced, seems beyond question. And
it seems also beyond question that there must have been
a consequent rhythmical change in the distribution of
organisms— a rhythmical change to which we here wish
to draw attention, as one cause of minor breaks in the
succession of fossil remains. Each species of plant and
animal has certain limits of heat and cold within which
only it can exist; and these limits in a great degree
determine its geographical position. It will not spread
north of a certain latitude, because it cannot bear a more
northern winter, nor south of a certain latitude, because
the sum m er heat is too great ; or else it is indirectly
restrained from spreading further by the effect of temper-
ature on the humidity of the air, or on the distribution of
the organisms it lives upon. But now, what will result
from a slow alteration of climate, produced as above de-
cribed ? Supposing the period we set out from is that in
which the contrast of seasons is least marked, it is manifest
that during the progress towards the period of most violent
contrast, each species of plant and animal will gradually
change its limits of distribution— will be driven back, her©

224 ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY.

"by the winter’s increasing cold, and there by the summer’s
increasing heat — will retire into those localities that are
still fit for it. Thus during 10,000 years, each species will
ebb away from certain, regions it was inhabiting; and
during the succeeding 10,000 years will flow back into
those regions. From the strata there forming, its remains
will disappear ; they will be absent from some of the
superposed strata ; and will be found in strata higher up.
But in what shapes will they re-appear ? Exposed during
the 2 1,000 years of their slow recession and their slow
return, to changing conditions of life, they are likely to
have undergone modifications ; and will probably re-appear
with slight differences of constitution and perhaps of form
—will be new varieties or perhaps new sub-species.

To this cause of minor breaks in the succession of
organic forms — a cause on which we have dwelt because it
has not been taken into account — We must add sundry
others. Besides these periodically-recurring changes of
Climate, there are the irregular ones produced by re-
distributions of land and sea; and these, sometimes less,
sometimes greater, in degree, than the rhythmical changes,
must, like them, cause in each region emigrations and
immigrations of species ; and consequent breaks, small or
large as the case may be, in the paleontological series.
Other and more special geological changes must produce
other and more local blanks in the succession. By some
inland elevation the natural drainage of a continent is
modified; and instead of the sediment previously brought
down to the sea by it, a great river brings down sediment
unfavourable to various plants and animals living in its
delta : whereupon these disappear from the locality, perhaps
to re-appear in a changed form after a long epoch. Upheavals
or subsidences of shores or sea-bottoms, involving deviations
of marine currents, remove the habitats of many species to
which such currents are salutary or injurious ; and further,
this redistribution of currents alters the places of sedi-

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY.

225

montary deposits, and ilius stops the burying of organic
remains in some localities, while commencing it in others.
Had we space, many more such causes of blanks in our
paleontological records might be added. But it is needless
here to enumerate them. They are admirably explained
and illustrated in Sir Charles Lyell’s Principles of Geology.

How, if these minor changes of the Barth’s surface
produce minor breaks in the series of fossilized remains ;
must not great changes produce great breaks ? If a local
upheaval or subsidence causes throughout its small area the
absence of some links in the chain of fossil forms' ; does it
not follow that an upheaval or subsidence extending over a
large part of the Barth’s surface, must cause the absence of
a great number of such links throughout a very wide area ?

When during a long epoch a continent, slowly sinking,
gives place to a far-spreading ocean some miles in depth, at
the bottom of which no deposits from rivers or abraded
shores can be thrown down ; and when, after some enormous
period, this ocean-bottom is gradually elevated and becomes
the site for new strata; it is clear that the fossils contained
in these new strata are likely to have but little in com-
mon with the fossils of the strata below them. Take, in
illustration, the case of the North Atlantic. We have
already named the fact that between this country and the
United States, the ocean-bottom is being covered with a
deposit of chalk — a deposit which, has been forming,
probably, ever since there occurred that great depression
of the Earth’s crust from which the Atlantic resulted in
remote geologic times. This chalk consists of the minute
shells of Forciminifera, sprinkled with remains of small
lihiiomostracci, and probably a few Pteropod-shells ; though,
the sounding lines have not yet brought up any of these last.
Thus, in so far as all high forms of life are concerned, this
new chalk-formation must be a blank. At rare intervals,
perhaps, a polar bear, drifted on an iceberg, may have its
bones scattered over the bed ; or a dead, decaying whale

226 ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY.

may similarly leave traces. But sucli remains must lie so
rare, that this new chalk-formation, if accessible, might be
examined for a century before any of them were disclosed.
If now, some millions of years hence, the Atlantic-bed
should be raised, and estuary deposits or shore deposits laid
upon it, these would contain remains of a Flora and a Fauna
so distinct from everything below them, as to appear like a
new creation.

Thus, along with continuity of life on the Earth’s surface,
there not only may be, but there must be, great gaps in the
series of fossils; and hence these gaps are no evidence
against the doctrine of Evolution.

One other current assumption remains to be criticized ;
and it is the one on which, more than on any other, depends
the view taken respecting the question of development.

From the beginning of the controversy, the arguments
for and against have turned upon the evidence of progres-
sion in organic forms, found in the ascending series of our
sedimentary formations. On the one hand, those who con-
tend that higher organisms have been evolved out of lower,
joined with those who contend that successively higher
organisms have been created at successively later periods,
appeal for proof to the facts of Paleontology; which, they
say, countenance their views. On the other hand, the Uni-
formitarians, who not only reject the hypothesis of develop-
ment, but deny that the modern forms of life are higher
than the ancient ones, reply that the paleontological
evidence is at present very incomplete ; that though wo
have not yet found remains of highly-organized creatures
in strata of the greatest antiquity, we must not assume that
no such creatures existed when those strata were deposited;
and that, probably, search will eventually disclose them.

It must be admitted that thus far, the evidence has gone
in favour of the latter party. Geological discovery has year
after year shown the small value of negative facts. The

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY.

227

conviction that there ore no traces of higher organisms in
earlier strata, has resulted not from the absence of such
traces, but from incomplete examination. At p. 460 of his
Manual of Elementary Geology, Sir Charles Lyell gives &
list in illustration of this. It appears that in 1709, fishes
were not known lower than the Permian system. In 1793
they were found in the subjacent Carboniferous system; in
1828-in the Devonian; in 1840 in the Upper Silurian. Of
reptiles, we read that in 1710 the lowest known were in the
Permian ; in 1844 they were detected in the Carboniferous;
and in 1852 in the Upper Devonian. While of the Mam-
malia the list shows that in 1798 none had been dis- *
covered below the Middle Eocene : but that in 1818 they
were discovered in the Lower Oolite; and in 1847 in the
Upper Trias.

The fact is, however, that both parties set out with an
inadmissible postulate. Of the Uniformitarians, not only
such writers as Hugh Miller/but also such as Sir Charles
Lyell,* reason as though we had found the earliest, or some-
thing like the earliest, strata. Their antagonists, whether
defenders of the Development Hypothesis or simply Pro-
gressionists, almost uniformly do the like. Sir Tt. Murchison,
who is a Progressionist, calls the lowest fossiliferous strata,

Protozoic.” Prof. Ansted uses the same term. Whether
avowedly or not, all the disputants stand on this assumption
as their common ground.

Yet is this assumption indefensible, as some who make it
very well know. Pacts may be cited against it which show
that it is a more than questionable one — that it is a highly
improbable one; while the evidence assigned in its favour
will not bear criticism.

Because in Bohemia, Great Britain, and portions of Horth '
America, the lowest unmetamorphosed strata yet discovered,

* Sir Charles Lyell is no longer to be classed among Uniformitarians.
With rare and admirable candour lie has, since this was written, yielded to
the arguments of Mr. Darwin.

228 ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY.

contain but slight traces of life. Sir E. Murchison conceives
that tliejr were formed while yet few, if any, plants or
animals had been created; and, therefore, classes them as
“ Azoic.” His own pages, however, show the illegitimacy
of the conclusion that there existed at that period no con-
siderable amount of life. Such traces of life as have been
found in the Longmynd rocks, for many years considered
nnfossiliferons, have been found in some of the lowest beds;
and the twenty thousand feet of superposed beds, still yield
no organic remains. If now these superposed strata
throughout a depth of four miles, are without fossils, though
* the strata over which they lie prove that life had com-
menced; what becomes of Sir E. Murchison’s inference ?
At page 189 of Siluria, a still more conclusive fact will be
found. The <e Glengariff grits,' ” and other accompanying
strata there described as 13,500 feet thick, contain no signs
of contemporaneous life. Yet Sir E. Murchison refers
them to the Devonian period — a period which had a largo
and varied marine Fauna. How then, from the absence
of fossils in the Longmynd beds and their equivalents, can
we conclude that the Earth was “ azoic 3) when they
were formed?

“ But,” it maybe asked, “ if living creatures then existed,
why do we not find fossiliferous strata of that age, or an
earlier age ? ” . One reply is, that the non-existence of such
strata is but a negative fact — we have not found them.
And considering how little we know even of the two-fifths
of the Earth’s surface now above the sea, and how absolutely
ignorant we are of the three-fifths below the sea, it is rash
to say that no such strata exist. But the chief reply is,

; that these records of the Earth’s earlier history have been
in great part destroyed, by agencies which are ever tending
to destroy such records.

It is an established geological doctrine, that sedimentary
strata are liable to be changed, more or less profoundly, by
igneous action. The rocks originally classed as “transition,”

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY.

229

because they were intermediate in character between the
igneous rocks found below them., and the sedimentary strata
found above them, are now known to be nothing else than
sedimentary strata altered in texture and appearance by
the intense heat of adjacent molten matter ; and hence are
renamed “metamorphie rocks.” Modern researches have
shown, too, that these metamorphic rocks are not, as was
once supposed, all of the same age. Besides primary and
secondary strata which have been transformed by igneous
action, there are similarly-changed deposits of tertiary
origin— deposits changed, even as far as a quarter of a mile
from the point of contact with neighbouring granite. By*
this process fossils are of course destroyed. “ In some cases,”
says Sir Charles Lyell, “dark limestones, replete with shells
and corals, have been turned into white statuary marble,
and hard clays, containing vegetable or other remains, into
slates called mica-schist or hornblende-schist ; every vestige
of the organic bodies having been obliterated.” Again, it
is fast becoming an acknowledged truth that igneous rock,
of whatever kind, is the product of sedimentary strata which
have been completely melted. Granite and gneiss, which
are of like chemical composition, have been shown, in various
cases, to pass one into the other ; asat "Valor sine, near
Mont Blanc, where the two, in contact, are observed to
“ both undergo * a modification of mineral character.
The granite still remaining unstratified, becomes charged
with green particles ; and the tal cose gneiss assumes a
granitiform structure without losing its stratification.”
In the Aberdeen-granite, lumps of unmelted gneiss are
abundant; and we can ourselves bear witness that the
granite on the banks of Lock S unart yields proofs that, when
molten, it contained incompletely-fused clots of sedimentary
strata. hfor is this all. Fifty years ago, it was thought
that all granitic rocks were primitive, or existed before any
sedimentary strata ; but it is now “ no easy task to point
out a single mass of granite demonstrably more ancient

230 ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY.

than all the known fossiliferous deposits.” In ’brief,
accumulated evidence shows, that by contact with, or
proximity to, the molten matter of the Earth's nucleus/ all
beds of sediment are liable to be actually melted, or par-
tially fused, or so heated as to agglutinate their particles ;
and that according to the temperature they have been
raised to, and the circumstances under which they cool, they
assume the forms of granite, porphyry, trap, gneiss, or rock
otherwise altered. Further, it is manifest that though
strata of various ages have been thus changed, yet the
most ancient strata have been so changed to the greatest
•extent; both because they have been nearer to the centre
of igneous agency ; and because they have been for longer
periods liable to be affected by it. Whence it follows, that
sedimentary Strata passing a certain antiquity, are unlikely
to be found in an unmetamorphosed state; and that strata
much earlier than these are certain to have been melted up.
Thus if, throughout a past of indefinite duration, there had
been at work those aqueous and igneous agencies which we
see still at work, the state of the Earth’s crust might be
just what we find it. We have no evidence which puts a
limit to the period throughout which this formation and
destruction of strata has been going on. For aught the facts
prove, it may have been going on for ten times the period
measured by our whole series of sedimentary deposits.

Besides having, in the present appearances of the Earth’s
crust, no data for fixing a commencement to these processes — «
besides finding that the evidence permits us to assume
such commencement to have been inconceivably remote, as
compared even with the vast eras of geology; we are not
without positive grounds for inferring the inconceivable
remoteness of such commencement. Modern geology has
established truths which are irreconcilable with the belief
that the formation and destruction of strata began when
the Cambrian rocks were formed; or at anything like so

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY. 231

recent a time. One fact from Siluna will suffice. Sir
R Murchison estimates the vertical thickness of Silurian
strata in Wales, at from 26,000 to 27,000 feet, or about live
miles ; and if tq this we add the vertical depth of the
Cambrian strata, on which the Silurians lie conformably,
there results, on the lowest computation, a total depth of
some seven miles. Now it is held by geologists, that this
vast series of formations must have been deposited in an
area of gradual subsidence. These beds could not have
been thus laid one on another in regular order, unless the
Earth’s crust had been at that place sinking, either con-
tinuously or by small steps. Such an immense subsidence, w
however, must have been impossible without a crust of great
thickness. The Earth’s molten nucleus tends ever, with
enormous force, to assume the form of a regular oblate
spheroid. Any depression of its crust below the surface of
equilibrium, and any elevation of its crust above that
surface, have to withstand immense resistances. It follows
inevitably that, with a thin crust, nothing but small elevations
and subsidences would have been possible ; and that, con-
versely, a subsidence of seven miles implies a crust of great
strength, or, in other words, of great thickness. Indeed,
if yre compare this inferred subsidence in the Silurian period,
with such elevations and depressions as our existing con-
tinents and oceans display, we see no evidence that the
Earth’s crust was appreciably thinner then than now.
What are the implications? If, as geologists generally
admit, the Earth’s crust has resulted from that slow cooling
which is even still going on — if we see no sign that at the
time when the earliest Cambrian strata were formed, this
crust was appreciably thinner than now; we are forced
to conclude that the era during which it acquired that great
thickness possessed in the Cambrian period, was enormous
as compared with the interval between the Cambrian period
and our own. But during the incalculable series of epochs
thus implied, there existed an ocean, tides, winds, waves,
11 ..

232

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY.

rain, rivers. Tlie agencies by which the denudation of
continents and filling np of seas Have all along been carried
on, were as active then as now. Endless successions of
strata must have been formed. And when we ask — Where
are they ? Nature’s obvious reply is — They have been
destroyed by that igneous action to which so great a part of
our oldest-known strata owe their fusion or metamorphosis.

Only the last chapter of the Earth’s history has come
down to us. The many previous chapters, stretching back
to a time immeasurably remote, have been burnt ; and with
them all the records of life we may presume they contained.
The greater part of the evidence which might have served
to settle the Development-controversy, is for ever lost; and
on neither side can the arguments derived from Geology
be conclusive.

“But how happen there to be such evidences of progres-
sion as exist?” it may be asked. “How happens it that, in
ascending from the most ancient strata to the most recent
strata, we do find a succession of organic forms, which,
however irregularly, carries us from lower to higher ? ”
This question seems difficult to answer. Nevertheless, there
is reason for thinking that nothing can be safely inferred
from the apparent progression here cited. And the illustra-
tion which shows as much, will, we believe, also show how
little trust is to be placed in certain geological generaliza-
tions that appear to be well established. With this some-
what elaborate illustration, to which we now pass, our
criticisms may fitly conclude.

Let ns suppose that in a region now covered by wide
ocean, there begins one of those great and gradual upheavals
by which new continents are formed. To bo precise, let us
say that in the South Pacific, midway between New Zealand
and Patagonia, tbe sea-bottom has been little by little thrust
up toward the surface, and is about to emerge. What will
be the successive phenomena, geological and biological, which

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY.

233

are likely to occur before this emerging sea-bottom, has be-
come another Europe or Asia ? In the first place, such por-
tions of the incipient land as are raised to the level of the
waves, will be rapidly denuded by them : their soft substance
will be torn up by the breakers, carried away by the local
currents, and deposited in neighbouring deeper water. Suc-
cessive small upheavals will bring new and larger areas
within reach of the waves ; fresh portions will each time be
removed from the surfaces previously denuded ; and further,
some of the newly-formed strata, being elevated nearly to
the level of the water, will be washed away and re-deposited.
In course of time the harder formations of the upraised
sea-bottom will be uncovered. These, being less easily
destroyed, will remain permanently above the surface; and
at their margins will arise the usual breaking down of rocks
into beach-sand and pebbles. While in the slow course of
this elevation, going on at the rate of perhaps two or three
feet in a century, most of the sedimentary deposits pro-
duced will be again and again destroyed and reformed;:
there will, in those adjacent areas of subsidence which
accompany areas of elevation, be more or less continuous
successions of sedimentary deposits lying on the pre-exist-
ing ocean bed. And now, what will be the character of
these strata, old and new ? They will contain scarcely any
traces of life. The deposits that had previously been slowly
formed at the bottom of this wide ocean, would be sprinkled
with fossils of but few species. The oceanic Fauna is not
a rich one; its hydrozoa do not admit of preservation; and
the hard parts of its few kinds of molluscs and crustaceans
and insects are mostly fragile. Hence, when the ocean-bed
was here and there raised to the surface — -when its strata of
sediment with their contained organic fragments were torn
up and long washed about by the breakers before being
re-deposited — when tlie re-deposits were again and again
subject to this violent abrading action by subsequent small
elevations, as they would mostly be ; what few fragile

234

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY.

organic remains they contained, would he in nearly all cases
destroyed. Thus such of the first-formed strata as survived
the repeated changes of level, would he- practically “azoic;”,
like the Cambrian of our geologists. When by the washing
away of the soft deposits, the hard sub-strata had been
exposed in the shape of rocky islets, and a footing had thus
been furnished, the pioneers of a new life might be expected
to make their. appearance. What would they be? Not any
of the surrounding oceanic species, for these are not fitted
for a littoral life; but species flourishing on some of the far-
distant shores of the Pacific. Of such, the first to establish
themselves would be sea-weeds and zoophytes ; because the
most readily conveyed on floating wood, &c., and because
when conveyed they would find fit food. It is true that
Cirrhipeds and Lamellibranclis, subsisting on the minute
creatures which everywhere people the sea, would also find
fit food. But the chances of early colonization, are in favour
of species which, multiplying by agamogenesis, can people
a whole shore from, a single germ; aud against species
which, multiplying only by gamogenesis, must be intro-
duced in considerable numbers that some may propagate.
Thus we infer that the earliest traces of life left in the
sedimentary deposits near these new shores, will be traces
of life as humble as that indicated in the most ancient rocks
of Great Britain and Ireland. Imagine now that the pro-
cesses above indicated, continue- — that the emerging lands
become wider in extent, and fringed by higher and more
varied shores ; and that there still go on those ocean-currents
which, at long intervals, convey from far distant shores
immigrant forms of life. What will result? Lapse of time
will of course favour the introduction of such new forms :
admitting, as it must, of those combinations of fit conditions,
which can occur only after long intervals. Moreover, the
increasing area of the islands, individually and as a group,
implies increasing length of coast, and therefore a longer
line of contact with the- streams and waves which bring

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY. 235

drifting masses bearing germs of fresh life. And once
more, the comparatively-varied shores, presenting physical
conditions which change from mile to mile, will furnish
suitable habitats for more numerous species. So that as the
elevation proceeds, three causes conspire to introduce ad-
ditional marine plants and animals. To what classes will
the increasing Fauna be for a long period confined? Of
course, to classes of which individuals, or their germs, are
most liable, to be carried far away from their native shores
by floating sea-weed or drift-wood; to classes which are
also least likely to perish in transit, or from change of
climate ; and to those which can best subsist around coasts
comparatively bare of lif e. Evidently then, corals, annelids,
inferior molluscs, and crustaceans of low grade, will chiefly
constitute the early Fauna. The large predatory members
of these classes, will be later in establishing themselves;
both because the new shores must first become well peopled
by the creatures they prey on, and because, being more
complex, they, or their ova, must be less likely to survive
the journey, and the change of conditions. We may infer,
then, that the strata deposited next after the almost
“azoic” strata, would contain, the remains of invertehrata,
allied to those found near the shores of Australia and South
America. Of such invertebrate remains, the lower beds
would furnish comparatively few genera, and those of
relatively low types ; while in the upper beds the number of
genera would be greater, and the types higher: just as
among the fossils of our Silurian system. As this great
geologic change slowly advanced through its long history
of earthquakes, volcanic disturbances, minor upheavals and
subsidences— as the extent of the archipelago became
greater and its smaller islands coalesced into larger ones,
while its coast-line grew still longer and more varied, and
the neighbouring sea more thickly inhabited by inferior
forms of life ; the lowest division of the vertebrata would
begin to be represented. In order of time, fish would

236 ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY.

naturally come later than the lower invertobrata ; "both, as
being less likely to have their ova transported across the
waste of waters, and as requiring for their subsistence a
pre-existing Fauna of some development. They might he
expected to make their appearance along with the pre-
daceous crustaceans ; as they do in the uppermost Silurian
rocks. And here, too, let us remark, that as, during this
long epoch we have been describing, the sea ■would have
made great inroads on some of the newly-raised lands which
had remained stationary j and would probably in some
places have reached masses of igneous or metamorphio
rocks j there might, in course of time, arise by the decom-
position and denudation of such rocks, local deposits coloured
with oxide of iron, like our Old Bed Sandstone. And ill
these deposits might be buried the remains of the fish then
peopling the neighbouring sea.

Meanwhile, how would the surfaces of the upheaved
masses be occupied ? At first their deserts of naked
rocks would bear only the humblest forms of vegetal life,
such as we find in grey and orange patches on our own
rugged mountain sides ; for these alone could flourish on
such surfaces, and their spores would he the most readily
transported. When, by the decay of such protophy tes, and
that decomposition of rock effected by them, there had
resulted a fit habitat for mosses ; these, of which the germs
might be conveyed in drifted trees, would begin to spread.
A soil having been eventually thus produced, it would be-
come possible for plants of higher organization to find
roothold ,* and as the archipelago and its constituent islands
grew larger, and had more multiplied relations with winds
and waters, such hi gher plants might be expected ultimately
to have their seeds transferred from the nearest lands.
After something like a Mora had thus colonized the surface,
it would become possible for insects to exist ; and of air-
breathing creatures, insects would manifestly be among the
first to find their way from elsewhere. As, however, terres-

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY. 237

trial organisms, both vegetal and animal, are less likely
tli an marine organisms to survive the accidents of transport
from distant stores ; it is inferable that long after the sea
surrounding ttese new lands had acquired a varied Flora
and Fauna, the lands themselves would still be compara-
tively bare; ,and thus that the early strata, like our
Silurians, would afford no traces of terrestrial life. By
the time that large areas had been raised above the ocean,
we may fairly suppose a luxuriant vegetation to have been
acquired. Under what circumstances are we . likely to find
this vegetation fossilized? Large surfaces of land imply
large rivers with their accompanying deltas ; and are liable
to have lakes and swamps. These, as we know from extant
cases, are favourable to rank vegetation; and afford the
conditions needful for preserving it in coal-beds. Observe,
then, that while in the early history of such a continent a
carboniferous period could not occur, the occurrence of a
carboniferous period would become probable after long-
continued upheavals had uncovered large areas. As in our
own sedimentary series, coal-beds would make their appear-
ance only after there had been enormous accumulations of
earlier strata charged with marine fossils.

Let us ask next, in what order the higher forms of animal
life would make their appearance. We have seen how, in
the succession of marine forms, there would be something
like a progress from the lower to the higher: bringing us
in the end to predaceous molluscs, crustaceans, and fish.
What are likely to succeed fish ? After marine creatures,
those which would have the greatest chance of surviving
the voyage would be amphibious reptiles; both because
they are more tenacious of life than higher animals, and
because they would be less completely out of their element.
Such reptiles as can live in both fresh and salt water, like
alligators; and such as are drifted out of the mouths of
great rivers on floating trees; as Humboldt says the Orinoco

238

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY.

alligators are; might be early ' colonists. It is manifest,
too, that reptiles of other kinds would bo among the first
vertebrata to people the new continent. If we consider
what will occur on one of those natural rafts of trees, soil,
and matted vegetable matter, sometimes swept out to sea
by such currents as the Mississippi, with a miscellaneous
living cargo ; we shall see that while the active, hot-blooded,
highly-organized creatures will soon die of starvation and
exposure, the inert, cold-blooded ones, which can go long
without food, will live perhaps for weeks ; and. so, out of
the chances from time to time occurring during long periods,
reptiles will be the first to get safely landed on foreign
shores : as indeed they are even now known sometimes to be.
The transport of mammalia being comparatively precarious,
must, in the order of probability, be longer postponed; and
would, indeed, be unlikely to occur until by the enlarge-
ment of the new continent, the distances of its shores from
adjacent lands had been greatly diminished, or the forma-
tion of intervening islands had increased the chances of
survival. Assuming, however, that the facilities for immi-
gration had become adequate ; which would be the first
mammals to arrive and live ? Not large herbivores; for
they would be soon drowned if by any accident carried out
to sea. Not the carnivora ; for these would lack appropriate
food, even if they outlived the voyage. Small quadrupeds
frequenting trees, and feeding on insects, would be those
most likely both to be drifted away from their native lands
and to find fit food in a new one. Insectivorous mammals,
like in size to those found in the Trias and the Stonesfield
slate, might naturally bo looked for as the pioneers of the
higher vertebrata. And if we suppose the facilities of
communication to be again increased, either by a further
shallowing of the intervening sea and a consequent multi-
plication of islands, or by an actual junction of the new
continent with an old one, through continued upheavals;

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY,

239

we should finally have an influx of the larger and more
perfect mammals.

Now rude as is this sketch of a process that would he ex-
tremely elaborate and involved, and open as some of its
propositions are to criticisms which there is no space here
to meet; no one will deny that it represents something
like the biologic history of the supposed new continent.
Details apart, it is manifest that simple organisms, able to
flourish under simple conditions of life, -would be the first
successful immigrants ; and that more complex organisms,
needing for their existence the fulfilment of more complex
conditions, would afterwards establish themselves in some-
thing like an ascending succession. At the one extreme
we see every f acility. The new individuals can be con-
veyed in the shape of minute germs; immense numbers of
these are perpetually being carried in all directions to great
distances by ocean-currents— -either detached or attached
to floating bodies; they can find nutriment wherever they
arrive; and the resulting organisms can multiply asexually
with great rapidity. At the other extreme, we see every
difficulty. The new individuals must be conveyed in their
adult forms ; their numbers are, in comparison, utterly
insignificant ; they live on land, and are very unlikely to
be carried out to sea; when so carried, the chances are
immense against their escape from drowning, starvation,
or death by cold ; if they survive the transit, they must
have a pre-existing Flora or Fauna to supply their special
food; they require, also, the fulfilment of various other
physical conditions ; and unless at least two individuals of
different sexes are safely landed, the race cannot be estab-
lished. Manifestly, then, the immigration of each succes-
sively higher order of organisms, having, from one or other
additional condition to be fulfilled, an enormously-increased
probability against it, would naturally be separated from
the immigration of a lower order by some period like a
geologic epoch. And thus the successive sedimentary

240

ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY.

deposits formed' while this new continent was undergoing
gradual elevation, would seem to furnish clear evidence of
a general progress in the forms of life. That lands thus
raised up in the midst of a wide ocean, would first give
origin to unfossiliferous strata ; next, to strata containing
only the lowest marine forms ; next to strata containing only
the higher marine forms, ascending finally to fish; and that
the strata above these would contain reptiles, then small
mammals, then great mammals ; seems to us demonstrable.
And if the succession of fossils presented by the strata of
this supposed new continent, would thus simulate the suc-
cession presented by our own sedimentary series ; must we
not conclude that our own sedimentary series very possibly
records nothing more than the phenomena accompanying one
of these great upheavals ? The probability of this conclusion
being admitted, it must be admitted that, the facts of Pale-
ontology can never suffice either to prove or disprove the
Development Hypothesis ; but that the most they can do is
to show whether the last few pages of the Earth’s biologic
history, are or are not in harmony with this hypothesis —
whether the existing Flora and Fauna can or can not be
affiliated upon the Flora and Fauna of the most recent
geologic times.

RAIN 0 N THE EMOTIONS AND THE WILL.

[ First published in The Medico-Chiruvgical Review /or January ,

I 860 .]

After the controversy between the Neptnnists and the
Vulcanists had been long carried on without definite re-
sults, there came a reaction against all speculative geology.
Reasoning without adequate data having led to nothing,
inquirers went into the opposite extreme, and confining
themselves wholly to collecting data, relinquished reasoning.
The Geological Society of London was formed with the
express object of accumulating evidence ; for many years
hypotheses were forbidden at its meetings: and only of
late have attempts to organize the mass of observations
into consistent theory been tolerated.

This reaction and subsequent re-reaction, well illustrate
the recent history of English thought in general. The
time was when our countrymen speculated, certainly to as
great an extent as any other people, on all those high
questions which present themselves to the human intellect ;
and, indeed, a glance at the systems of philosophy that
are or have been current on the Continent, suffices to
show how much other nations owe to the discoveries of our
ancestors. For a generation or two, however, these more
abstract subjects have fallen into neglect; and, among
those who plume themselves on being “practical,” even
into contempt. Partly, perhaps, a natural accompaniment

242 bain Off THE EMOTIONS AND THE WILL .

of our rapid material growth, this intellectual phase has
been in great measure due to the exhaustion of argument,
and the necessity for better data. Not so much with, a
conscious recognition of the end to be subserved, as from
an unconscious subordination to that rhythm traceable in
social changes as in other things, an era of theorizing
without observing; has been followed by an era of observing
without theorizin g. During this long-continued devotion
to concrete science, an immense quantity of raw material
for abstract science has been accumulated ; and now there
is obviously commencing a period m which this accumulated
raw material will be organized into consistent theory. On
all sides — equally in the inorganic sciences, in the science
of life, and in the science of society-— we may note the
tendency to pass from the superficial and empirical to the
more profound and rational.

In Psychology this change is conspicuous. The facts
brought to light by anatomists and physiologists during
the last fifty years, are at length being used towards the
interpretation of this highest class of biological phenomena;
and already there is promise of a great advance. The
work of Mr. Alexander Bain, of which the second volume
has been recently issued, may be regarded as especially
characteristic of the transition. It gives us, in orderly
arrangement, the great mass of evidence supplied by
modern science towards the building-up of a coherent
system, of mental philosophy. It is not in itself a system
of mental philosophy, properly so called; but a classified
collection of materials for such a system, presented with
that method and insight which scientific discipline generates,
and accompanied with occasional passages of an analytical
character. It is indeed that which it in the main professes
to be — a natural history of the mind. Were we to say
that the researches of the naturalist who collects and:
dissects and describes species, bear the same relation to
the researches of the comparative anatomist tracing out

243

BAIN ON THE EMOTIONS AND THE WILL.

the laws of organization, which Mr. Bain’s labours bear to
flic labours of the abstract psychologist, we should be going
somewhat too far ; for Mr. Bain’s work is not wholly
descriptive. Still, however, such an analogy conveys the
best general conception of what he has done j and serves
most clearly to indicate its needfulness, Bor as, before
there can be made anything like true generalizations
respecting the classification of organisms and the laws of
organization, there must be an extensive accumulation of
the facts presented in numerous organic bodies ; so, without
a tolerably-complete delineation of mental phenomena
of all orders, there can scarcely arise any adequate theory
of mind. Until recently, mental science has been pursued
much as physical science was pursued by the ancients ;
not by drawing conclusions from observations and
experiments, but by drawing them from arbitrary a priori
assumptions. This course, long since abandoned in the
piio case with immense advantage, is gradually being
abandoned in the other; and the treatment of Psychology
as a division of natural history, shows that the abandonment
will soon be complete.

Estimated as a means to higher results, Mr. Bain’s work
is of great value. Of its kind it is the most scientific in
conception, the most catholic in spirit, and the most
complete in execution. Besides delineating the various
classes of mental phenomena as seen under that stronger
light thrown on them by modern science, it includes in the
picture much which previous writers had omitted — partly
from prejudice, partly from ignorance. -We refer more
especially to the participation of bodily organs in mental
changes ; and the addition to the primary mental changes,
of those many secondary ones which the actions of the
bodily organs generate. Mr. Bain has, we believe, been
the first to appreciate the importance of this element in
our states of consciousness ; and it is one of his merits that
he shows how constant and large an element it is. Further,

244

BAra OH TUB EMOTIONS AND THE WILL.

tBe relations of voluntary and involuntary movements are
elucidated in a way that was not possible to writers
unacquainted with the modern doctrine of reflex action
And beyond this, some of the analytical passages that here
and there occur, contain important ideas.

Valuable, however, as is Mr. Bain’s work, we regard it as
essentially transitional. It presents in a digested'form the
results of a period of observation; adds to these results
many well-delineated facts collected by himself; arranges
new and old materials with that more scientific method which
the discipline of our times has fostered ; and so prepares the
way for better generalizations. But almost, of necessity its
classifications and conclusions are provisional In the
growth of each science, not only is correct observation
needful for the formation of true theory; but true theory
is needful as a preliminary to correct observation. Of
course we do not intend this assertion to be taken literally *
but as a strong expression of the fact that the two must
advance hand m hand. The first crude theory or rou^h
classification, based on very slight knowledge of tho nho

“Y- S ;T‘ “ 3 T" S ° f rcduci ^ Phenomena,
to some kind of order; and as supplying a conception with

which fresl. phenomena may be compared, and their agree-
ment or disagreement noted. Incongruities being by and
by made manifest by wider examination of cases, there
comes such modification of the theory as brings it into a
nearer correspondence with the evidence. This reacts to
the further advance of observation. More extensive and
complete observation brings additional corrections of theory
and so on till the troth is reached. In mental science the
systematic collection of facts having but recently com-
menced, it is not to be expected that tho results can be at
once rightly formulated. All that may be looked for are
approximate generalisations which will presently serve for
the better directing of inquiry. Hence, even were it not
now possible to say in what way it does so, we might be

BAIN ON THE EMOTIONS AND TIIE WILE. 245

tolerably certain that Mr. Bain’s work bears the stamp of
the inchoate state of Psychology.

We think, however, that it will not be difficult to find
in what respects its organization is provisional; and at
the same time to show what must be the nature of a
more complete organization. We propose here to attempt
this: illustrating our positions from his recently-issued
second volume.

Is it possible to make a true classification without the
aid of analysis ? or must there not be an analytical basis to
every true classification ? Can the real relations of things
be determined by the obvious characteristics of the things ?
or does it not commonly happen that certain hidden charac-
teristics, on which the obvious ones depend, are the truly
significant ones? This is the preliminary question which a
glance at Mr. Bain’s scheme of the emotions suggests.

Though not avowedly, yet by implication, Mr. Bain
assumes that a right conception of the nature, the order,
and the relations of the emotions, may be arrived at by
contemplating their conspicuous objective and subjective
characters, as displayed in the adult. After pointing out
that we lack those means of classification which serve in
the case of the sensations, he says —

“In these circumstances we must turn our attention to the manner of
diffusion of the different passions and emotions, in order to obtain a basis of
classification analogous to the arrangement of the sensations. If what we
have already advanced on that subject be at all well founded, this is the
genuine turning point of the method to be chosen, for the same mode of
diffusion will always he accompanied by the same mental experience, and
each of the two aspects would identify, and would be evidence of, the other.
There is, therefore, nothing so thoroughly characteristic of any state of
feeling as the nature of the diffusive wave that embodies it, or the various
organs specially roused into action by it, together with the manner of the
action. The only drawback is our comparative ignorance, and our inability
to discern the precise character of the diffusive currents in every case ; a
radical imperfection in the science of mind as constituted at present.

“ Our own consciousness, formerly reckoned the only medium of know-

216

■RATO OS THE EMOTIONS AND THE WILL.

ledge to the mental philosopher, must therefore be still referred to as a
principal means of discriminating the varieties of human feeling. We have
the power of noting agreement and difference among our conscious states,
and on this we Can raise a structure of classification. We recognise such
generalities as pleasure, pain, love, anger, through the property of mental or
intellectual discrimination that accompanies in our mind the fact of
emotion. A certain degree of precision is attainable by this mode of mental
comparison and analysis; the farther we can carry such precision the
better ; but that is no reason why it should stand alone to the neglect of the;
corporeal embodiments through which one mind reveals itself to others.
The companionship of inward feeling with bodily manifestation is a fact of
the human constitution, and deserves to be studied as such ; and it would be
difficult to find a place more appropriate than a treatise on the mind for
setting forth the conjunctions and sequences traceable in this department of
nature. I shall make no scruple in conjoining with the description of the
mental phenomena the physical appearances, in so far as I am able to
ascertain them.

“There is still one other quarter to be referred to in settling a complete
arrangement of the emotions, namely, the varieties of human conduct, and
the machinery created in subservience to our common susceptibilities. For
example, the vast superstructure of fine art lias its foundations in human
feeling, and in rendering an account of this we arc led to recognise the
interesting group of artistic or aasthetic emotions. The same outward
reference to conduct and creations brings to light the so-called moral
sense in man, whose foundations, in the mental system have accordingly
to be examined.

“ Combining together these various indications, or sources of discrimina-
tion, —-outward objects, diffusive mode or expression, inward consciousness,
resulting conduct and institutions, — I adopt the following arrangement of the
families or natural orders of emotion.”

Here, then, are confessedly adopted, as bases of classi-
fication, the most manifest characters of the emotions •
as discerned subjectively, and objectively. The mode of
diffusion of an emotion is one of its outside aspects; the
institutions it generates form another of its outside aspects ;
and though the peculiarities of the emotion as a state of
consciousness, seem to express its intrinsic and. ultimate
nature, yet such peculiarities as are perceptible by simple
introspection, must also be classed as superficial peculiari-
ties. It is a familiar fact that various intellectual states of
consciousness turn out, when analyzed, to have natures
widely unlike those which at first appear; and we believe

BAIN ON THE EMOTIONS AND THE WILL. 247

the like will prove true of emotional states of consciousness.
Just as oiu* concept of space, which is apt to be thought
a simple, undecomposable concept, is yet resolvable into
experiences quite different from that state of consciousness
which we call space; so, probably, the sentiment of affection
or reverence is compounded of elements that are severally
distinct from the whole which they make up. And much
as a classification of our ideas which dealt with the idea of
space as though it were ultimate, would be a classification
of ideas by their externals ; so, a classification of bur
emotions, which, regarding them as simple, describes their
aspects in ordinary consciousness, is a classification of
emotions by their externals.

Thus, then, Mr. Bain’s grouping is throughout determined
by the most manifest attributes— those objectively displayed
in the natural language of the emotions, and in the social
phenomena that result from them, and those subjectively
displayed in the aspects the emotions assume in an analyti-
cal consciousness. And the question is — Can they be
correctly grouped after this method ?

We think not; and had Mr. Bain carried farther an idea
with which he has set out, he would probably have seen that
they cannot. As already said, he avowedly adopts e( the
natural-history-method not only referring to it in his pre-
face, but in his first chapter giving examples of botanical
and zoological classifications, as illustrating the mode in
which he proposes to deal with the emotions. This we
conceive to be a philosophical conception; and we have
only tb regret that Mr. Bain has overlooked some of its
most important implications. For in what has essentially
consisted the progress of natural-history- classification ? In
the abandonment of grouping by external, conspicuous
characters ; and in the making of certain internal, but all-
essential characters, the bases of groups. Whales are not
now ranged along with fish, because in their general forms
and habits of life they resemble fish ; but they are ranged

218 BAIN ON THE EMOTIONS AND THE WILL.

•with mammals, because tlie type of their organization, as
ascertained by dissection, corresponds with that of mammals.
No longer considered as sea-weeds in virtue of their forms
and inodes of growth, Polyzoa are now shown, by examina-
tion of their economy, to belong to the animal 'kingdom.
It is found, then, that the discovery of real relationships
involves analysis. It has turned out that the earlier classi-
fications, guided by general resemblances, though containing
much truth, and though very useful provisionally, were yet
in many cases radically wrong; and that the true affinities
of organisms, and the true homologies of their parts, are
to be made out only by examining their hidden structures.
Another fact of great significance in the history of classifi-
cation is also to be noted. Very frequently the kinship of
an organism cannot be made out even by exhaustive
analysis, if that analysis is confined to the adult structure.
In many cases it is needful to examine the structure in its
earlier stages ; and even in its embryonic stage. So diffi-
cult was it, for instance, to determine the true position of
the Cirrhiyedia among animals, by examining mature
individuals only, that Cuvier erroneously classed them with
Mollusca, even after dissecting them ; and not until their
early forms were discovered, were they clearly proved to
belong to the Crustacea . So important, indeed, is the study
of development as a means to classification, that the first
zoologists now hold it to be the only absolute criterion.

Here, then, in the advance of natural-history-classification,
are two fundamental facts, which should be borne in mind
when classifying the emotions. If, as Mr. Bain rightly
assumes, the emotions are to be grouped after the natural-
hi story-method ; then it should be the natural-history-
method in its complete form, and not in its rude form.
Mr. Bain will doubtless agree in the belief, that a correct
account of the emotions in their natures and relations, must
correspond with a correct account of the nervous system—
must form another side of the same ultimate facts. Struc-

BAIN ON THE EMOTIONS AND THE WILD. 249

tnro and function must necessarily Harmonize. Structures
which have with each other certain ultimate connexions,
must have functions which have answering connexions.
Structures which have arisen in certain ways, must have
functions which have arisen in parallel ways. And hence if
analysis and development are needful for the right inter-
pretation of structures, they must be needful for the right
interpretation of functions. Just as a scientific description
of the digestive organs must include not only their obvious
forms and connexions, hut their microscopic characters,
and also the ways in which they severally result by
differentiation from the primitive mucous membrane; so
must a scientific account of the nervous system include its
general arrangements, its minute structure, and its mode
of evolution; and so must a scientific account of nervous
actions include the answering three elements. Alike in
classing separate organisms, and in classing the parts of
the same organism, the complete natural-history-meth od
involves ultimate analysis, aided by development ; and Mr.
Bain, in not basing his classification of the emotions on
characters reached through these aids, has fallen short of
the conception with which he set out.

“But,” it will perhaps he asked, “how are the emotions
to be analyzed, and their modes of evolution to be ascer-
tained ? Different animals, and different organs of the
same animal, may readily be compared in their internal
structures and microscopic structures, as also in their
developments; but functions, and especially such functions
as the emotions, do not admit of like comparisons.”

It must be admitted that the application of these methods
is here by no means so easy. Though we can note differ-
ences and similarities between the internal formations of
two animals ; it is difficult to contrast the mental states of
two animals. Though the true morphological relations of
organs may be mad© out by observation of embryos; yet,
where such organs are inactive before birth, we cannot

250

BAIN ON THE EMOTIONS AND THE WILL.

completely trace the history of their actions. Obviously,
too, pursuance of inquiries of the kind indicated, raises
questions which science is not yet prepared to answer ; as>
for instance — Whether all nervous functions, in common
with all other functions, arise by gradual differentiations,
as their organs do ? Whether the emotions are, therefore;
to be regarded as divergent modes of action that have
become unlike by successive modifications ? Whether, as
two organs which originally budded out of the same mem-
brane have not only become different as they developed,
but have also severally become compound internally, though
externally simple ; so two emotions, simple and near akin
in their roots, may not only have grown unlike, but may
also have grown involved in their natures, though seeming
homogeneous to consciousness? And here, indeed, in the
inability of existing science to answer these questions which
underlie a true psychological classification, we see how
purely provisional any present classification is likely to be.

Nevertheless, even now, classification may be aided by
development and ultimate analysis to a considerable extent ;
and the defect in Mr. Bain’s work is, that he has not syste-
matically availed himself of them as far as possible. Thus
we may, in the first place, study the evolution of the emo-
tions up through the various grades of the animal kingdom:
observing which of them are earliest and exist with the
lowest organization and intelligence ; in what order the
others accompany higher endowments ; and how they are
severally related to the conditions of life. In the second
place, we may note the emotional differences between
the lower and the higher human races — may regard as
earlier and simpler those feelings which are common to
both, and as later and more compound those which are
characteristic of the most civilized. In the third place,
we may observe the order in which the emotions unfold
during the progress from infancy to maturity. And lastly,
comparing these three kinds of emotional development,

251

BAIN ON THE EMOTIONS AND THE WILL.

displayed in tlie ascending grades of tlie animal kingdom,
in tlie advance of the civilized races, and in individual
history, we may see in what respects they harmonize, and
what are the implied general truths.

Having gathered together and generalized these several
classes of facts, analysis of the emotions would be made
easier. Setting out with the assumption that every new form
of emotion making its appearance in the individual or the
race, is a modification of some pre-existing emotion, or a
compound of several pre-existing emotions, we should
be greatly aided by knowing what always are the pre-
existing emotions. When, for example, we find that very
few of the lower animals show any love of accumulation,
and that this feeling is absent in infancy- — when we see
that an infant in arms exhibits anger, fear, wonder, while
yet it manifests no desire of permanent possession, and that
a brute which has no acquisitiveness can nevertheless feel
attachment, jealousy, love of approbation; we may suspect
that the feeling which property satisfies is compounded
out of simpler and deeper feelings. We may conclude
that as, when a dog hides a bone, there must exist in
him a prospective gratification of hunger; so there must
similarly at first, in all eases where anything is secured
or taken possession of, exist an ideal excitement of the
feeling which that thing will gratify. We may further
conclude that when the intelligence is such that a variety
of objects come to be utilized for different purposes— when,
as among savages, divers wants are satisfied through the
articles appropriated for weapons, shelter, clothing, orna-
ment; the act of appropriating comes to be one constantly
involving agreeable associations, and one which is there-
fore pleasurable, irrespective of the end subserved. And
when, as in civilized life, the property acquired is of a kind
not conducing to one order of gratification in particular,
but is capable of administering to all gratifications, the
pleasure of acquiring property grows more distinct from

252 BAIN ON THE EMOTIONS AND THE WILL.

each of the various pleasures subserved — is more completely
differentiated into a separate emotion.

This illustration, roughly as it is sketched, will show what
we mean by the use of comparative psychology in aid of
classification. Ascertaining by induction tho actual order
of evolution of the emotions, we are led to suspect this
to be their order of successive dependence ; and are so
led to recognize their order of ascending complexity ; and
by consequence their true groupings.

Thus, in the very process of arranging the emotions into
grades, beginning with those involved in the lowest forms
of conscious activity and ending with those peculiar to the
adult civilized man, the way is opened for that ultimate
analysis which alone can lead us to the true science of the
matter, For when we find both that there exist in a
man feelings which do not exist in a child, and that the
European is characterized by some sentiments winch are
wholly or in great part absent from the savage— -when we
see that, besides the new emotions which arise spontaneously
as the individual becomes completely organized, there are
new emotions making their appearance in the more advanced
divisions of our race; we are led to ask — How are new
emotions generated? The lowest savages have not even
the ideas of justice or mercy : they have neither words for
them nor can they be made to conceive them ; and the
manifestation of them by Europeans they ascribe to fear
or cunning. There are msthetic emotions common among
ourselves, which are scarcely in any degree experienced by
some inferior races; as, for instance, those produced by
music. To which instances may be added the less marked
but more numerous contrasts that exist between civilized
races in the degrees of their several emotions. And if it
is manifest, both that all the emotions are capable of being
permanently modified in the course of successive generations,
and that what must be classed as new emotions may be
brought into existence ; then it follows that nothing like a

BAIN ON THE EMOTIONS AND THE WILL. 253

true conception of tlie emotions is to bo obtained, until we
understand bow they are evolved.

Comparative Psychology, while it raises this inquiry,
prepares the way for answering it. When observing the
differences between races, we can scarcely fail to observe
also how these differences correspond with differences
between their conditions of existence, and consequent
activities. Among the lowest races of men, love of
property stimulates to the obtainment only of such things
as satisfy immediate desires, or desires of the immediate
future. Improvidence is the rule : there is little effort to
meet remote contingencies. Bat the growth of established
societies having gradually given security of possession,
there has been an increasing tendency to provide for
coming years : there has been a constant exercise of the
feeling which is satisfied by a provision for the future; and
there has been a growth of this feeling so great that it now
prompts accumulation to an extent beyond what is needful.
Note, again, that under the discipline of social life — under
a comparative abstinence from aggressive actions, and a per-
formance of those naturally-servieeable actions implied by the
division of labour — there has been a development of those
gentle emotions of which inferior races exhibit but the rudi-
ments. Savages delight in giving pain rather than pleasure
— are almost devoid of sympathy ; while among ourselves,
philanthropy organizes itself in laws, establishes numerous
institutions, and dictates countless private benefactions.

From which and other like facts, does it not seem an
unavoidable inference, that new emotions are developed by
new experiences — new habits of life ? All are familiar with
the truth that, in the individual, each feeling may be
strengthened by performing those actions which it prompts ;
and to say that the feeling is strengthened, is to say that
it is in part made by these actions. We know, further,
that not ^infrequently, individuals, by persistence in special
courses of conduct, acquire special likings for such courses.

254 BAIN ON THE EMOTIONS AND THE WILL.

disagreeable as these may be to others ; and these whims,
or morbid tastes, imply incipient emotions corresponding
to these special activities. We know that emotional
characteristics, in common , with all others, are hereditary |
and the differences between civilized nations descended
from the same stock, show us the cumulative results of
small modifications hereditarily transmitted. And when
we see that between savage and civilized races which
diverged from one another in the remote past, and have
for a hundred generations followed modes of life becoming
ever more unlike, there exist still greater emotional
contrasts ; may we not infer that the more or less
distinct emotions which characterize civilized races, are the
organized results of certain daily-repeated combinations of
mental states which social life involves ? Must we not say
that habits not only modify emotions in the individual, and
not only begot tendencies to like habits and accompanying
emotions in descendants, but that when the conditions of
the race make the habits persistent, this progressive modi-
fication may go on to the extent of producing emotions so
far distinct as to seem new ? And if so, we may suspect
that such new emotions, and by implication all emotions
analytically considered, consist of aggregated and consoli-
dated groups of those simpler feelings which habitually
occur together in experience. When, in the circumstances
of any race, some one kind of action or set of actions, sen-
sation or setof sensations, is usually followed, or accompanied,
by various other sets of actions or sensations, and so entails
a large mass of pleasurable or painful states of conscious-
ness; these, by frequent repetition, become so connected
together that the initial action or sensation brings the ideas
of all the rest crowding into consciousness : producing, in
some degree, the pleasures or pains that have before been
felt in reality. And when this relation, besides being fre-
quently repeated in the individual, occurs in successive
generations, all the many nervous actions involved tend to

■ 255 :

BAIN 1 OK THE EMOTIONS AND THE WILL.

grow organically connected. They "become incipiently
reflex; and, on tlie occurrence of tlie appropriate stimulus,
the whole nervous apparatus which in past generations was
brought into activity by this stimulus, becomes nascently
excited. Even while yet there have been no individual
experiences, a vague feeling of pleasure or pain is pro-
duced ; constituting what we may call the body of the
emotion. And when the experiences of past generations
come to be repeated in the individual, the emotion gains
both strength and definiteness; and is accompanied by the
appropriate specific ideas.

This view of the matter, which we believe the estab-
lished truths of Physiology and Psychology unite in indi-
cating, and which is the view that generalizes the phenomena
of habit, of national characteristics, of civilization in its
moral aspects, at the same time that it gives ns a conception
of emotion in its origin and ultimate nature, may be
illustrated from the mental modifications undergone by
animals. On newly-discovered lands not inhabited by man,
birds are so devoid of fear as to allow themselves to be
knocked over with sticks ; but in the course of generations,
they acquire such a dread of man as to fly on his approach ;
and this dread is manifested by young as well as by old.
"Now unless this change be ascribed to the killing-off of
the less fearful, and the preservation and multiplication
of the more fearful, which, considering the comparatively
small number killed by man, is an inadequate cause ; it
must be ascribed to accumulated experiences; and each
experience must be held to have a share in producing it.
We must conclude that in each bird which escapes with
injuries inflicted by man, or is alarmed by the outcries of
other members of the flock (gregarious creatures of any
intelligence being necessarily more or less sympathetic),
there is established an association of ideas between the
human aspect and the pains, direct and indirect, suffered
from human agency. And we must further conclude that

256 BAIN ON THE EMOTIONS AND THE WILL.

the state of consciousness which impels tlie bird to fake
flight, is at first nothing more tlian an ideal reproduction
of those painful impressions which before followed man’s
approach ; that such ideal reproduction becomes more vivid
and more massive as the painful experiences, direct or
sympathetic, increase; and that thus the emotion in its
incipient state, is nothing else than an aggregation of the
revived pains before experienced. As, in the course of
generations, the young birds of this race begin to display
a fear of man before yet they have been injured by him,
it is an unavoidable inference that the nervous system of
the race has been organically modified by these experiences :
we have no choice but to conclude that when a young bird
is thus led to fly, it is because the impression produced on
its senses by the approaching* man, entails, through an
incipiently-reflex action, a partial excitement of all those
nerves which in its ancestors liad been excited under the like
conditions ; that this partial excitement has its accompanying
painful consciousness ; and that the vague painful conscious-
ness thus arising, constitutes emotion proper— emotion
undecomposable into specific experiences , and therefore
seemingly homogeneous.

If such be the explanation of the fact in this case, then it
is in all cases. If emotion is so generated here, then it is so
generated throughout. We must perforce conclude that the
emotional modifications displayed by different nations, and
those higher emotions by which civilized are distinguished
from savage, are to be accounted for on the same principle.
And concluding this, we are led strongly to suspect that
the emotions in general have severally thus originated.

Perhaps we have now made sufficiently clear what we
mean by the study of the emotions through analysis and
development. We have aimed to justify the positions that,
without analysis aided by development, there cannot be a
true natural history of the emotions; and that a natural
history of the emotions based on external characters can be

257

BAIN ON THE EMOTIONS AND THE WILL.

But provisional. We think that Mr. Bain, in confining him-
self to an account of the emotions as they exist in the adult
civilized man, has neglected those classes of facts out of
which the science of the matter must chiefly he built. It is
true that he has treated of hahits as modifying emotions in
the individual ; but he has not recognized the fact that where
conditions render habits persistent in successive generations,
such modifications are cumulative : he has not hinted that
the modifications produced by habit are emotions in the
making. It is true, also, that he occasionally refers to the
characteristics of children; but he does not systematically
trace the changes through which childhood passes into man-
hood, as throwing light on the order and genesis of the
emotions. It is further true that he here and there refers
to national traits in illustration of his subject; but these
stand as isolated facts, having no general significance :
there is no hint of any relation between them and the
national circumstances; while all those many moral contrasts
between lower and higher races which throw great light
on classification, are passed over. And once more, it is true
that many passages of his work, and sometimes, indeed,
whole sections of it, are analytical; but his analyses are
incidental — they do not underlie his entire scheme, but are
here and there added to it. In brief, he has written a Des-
criptive Psychology, which does not appeal to Comparative
Psychology and Analytical Psychology for its leading ideas.
And in doing this, he has omitted much that should be
included iu a natural history of the mind; while to that part
of the subject with which he has dealt, he has given a
necessarily-imperfeet organization.

Even leaving out of view the absence of those methods
and criteria on which we have been insisting, it appears to
us that meritorious as is Mr. Bain's book in its details, it is
defective in some of its leading ideas. The first paragraphs
of his first chapter, quite startled us by the strangeness of

258 BAIN ON THE EMOTIONS AND THE WILL.

their definitions — a strangeness which can scarcely Tbo
ascribed to laxity of expression. The paragraphs run thus: — ■

“ Hindis comprised under three heads,— -Emotion. Volition, and Intellect.

“ EmotxoN: is the name here used to comprehend all that is understood by
feelings, states of feeling, pleasures, pains, passions, sentiments, affections.
Consciousness, and conscious states also for the most part denote modes of
emotion, although there is such a thing as the Intellectual consciousness.

“ Volition, on the other hand, indicates the great fact that our Pleasures
and Pains, which are not the whole of our emotions, prompt to action, or
stimulate the active machinery of the living framework to perform such
operations as procure the first and; abate the last. To withdraw from a
scalding heat, and cling to a gentle warmth, are exercises of volition.”

The last of these definitions, which we may most conve-
niently take first, seems to us very faulty. We cannot but
feel astonished that Mr. Bain, familiar as he is with the
phenomena of reflex action, should have so expressed
himself as to include a great part of them along with the
phenomena of volition. He seems to be ignoring the dis-
criminations of modern science, and returning to the vague
conceptions of the past — nay more, he is comprehending
under volition what even the popular speech would hardly
bring under it. If you were to blame any one for snatch-
ing his foot from the scalding water into which he had
inadvertently put it, he would tell you that he could not
help it j and his reply would be indorsed by the general
experience, that the withdrawal of a limb from contact with
something extremely hot, is quite involuntary — that it takes
place not only without volition, but in defiance of an effort
of will to maintain the contact. How, then, can that be
instanced as au example of volition, which occurs even
when volition is antagonistic ? ; We are quite aware that it
is impossible to draw any absolute liue of demarcation
between automatic actions and actions which are not
automatic. Doubtless we may pass gradually from the
purely reflex, through, the consensual, to the voluntary.
Taking the case Mr. Bain cites, it is manifest that from a
heat of such moderate degree that the withdrawal from it
is wholly voluntary, we may advance by infinitesimal steps

BAIN ON THE EMOTIONS AND THE WILL. 250

to a, lieat which compels involuntary' withdrawal ; and that
there is a stage at which the voluntary and involuntary
actions are mixed. But the difficulty of absolute discrimi-
nation is no reason for neglecting the broad general
contrast j any more than it is for confounding light with
darkness. If we are to include as examples of volition,
all cases in which pleasures and pains “ stimulate the
active machinery of the living framework to perform such
operations as procure the first and abate the last / 5 then
we must consider sneezing and coughing as examples of
volition; and Mr. Bain surely cannot mean this. Indeed,
we must confess ourselves at a loss. On the one hand if
he does not mean it, his expression is lax to a degree that
surprises us in so careful a writer. On the other hand, if
he does mean it, we cannot understand his point of view.

A parallel criticism applies to his definition of Emotion.
Here, too, he has departed from the ordinary acceptation
of the word; and, as we think, in the wrong direction.
Whatever may be the interpretation that is justified by its
derivation, the word emotion has come generally to mean
that kind of feeling which is not a direct result of any
action on the organism; but is either an indirect result of
such action, or arises quite apart from such action. It is
used to indicate those sentient states which are inde-
pendently generated in consciousness; as distinguished
from those generated in our corporeal framework, and
known as sensations. Now this distinction, tacitly made
in common speech, is one which Psychology cannot well
reject; but one which it must adopt, and to which it must
give scientific precision. Mr. Bain, however, appears to
ignore any such distinction. Under the term emotion,
he includes not only passions, sentiments, affections, but all
(C feelings, states of feeling, pleasures, pains,” — that is, all
sensations. This does not appear to be a mere lapse of
expression; for when, in the opening sentence, he asserts

2G0 BAIN ON THE EMOTIONS AND THE WILL.

that cc mind is comprised under the three heads — Emotion,
Volition, and Intellect/' he of necessity implies that sensa-
tion is included under one of these heads y and as it cannot
he included under volition or intellect, it must he classed
with emotion ; as it clearly is in the next sentence.

We cannot hut think this a retrograde step. Though
distinctions which haye heen established in popular thought
and language, are not unfrequently merged in the higher
generalizations of science (as, for instance, when crabs and
■worms are grouped together in the sub-kingdom Anmdosa) ;
yet science very generally recognizes the validity of these
distinctions, as real though not fundamental. And so in
the present case. Such community as analysis discloses
between sensation and emotion, must not shut out the;
broad contrast that exists between them. If there needs a
wider word, as there does, to signify any sentient state what-
ever; then we may fitly adopt for this purpose the word
currently so used, namely, “ Feeling." And considering
as Feelings all that great division of mental states which we
do not class as Cognitions, we may then separate this great
division into the two orders. Sensations and Emotions.

And here we may, before concluding, briefly indicate the
leading outlines of a classification which reduces this
distinction to a scientific form, and develops it somewhat
further — a classification which, while suggested by certain
fundamental traits reached without a very lengthened
inquiry, is yet, we believe, in harmony with that disclosed
by detailed analysis.

Leaving out of view the Will, which is a simple homo-
geneous mental state, forming the link between feeling
and action, and not admitting of subdivisions; our states
of consciousness fall into two great classes— Cognitions
and Peelings.

Cognitions, or those modes of mind in which we are

261

BAIN ON Tire EMOTIONS AND THE WILL.

occupied witli the relations that subsist among our feelings,
are divisible into four great sub-classes.

Presentative cognitions ; or those in which consciousness
is occupied in localizing a sensation impressed on the
organism-— occupied, that is, with the relation between this
presented mental state and those other presented mental
states which make up our consciousness of the part affected;
as when we cut ourselves.

Presentative-representative cognitions ; or those in which
consciousness is occupied with the relation between a sensa-
tion or group of sensations and the representations of those
various other sensations that accompany it in experience.
This is what we commonly call perception— -an act in which,
along with certain impressions presented to consciousness,
there arise in consciousness the ideas of certain other im-
pressions ordinarily connected with the presented ones : as
when its visible form and colour, lead us to mentally endow
an orange with all its other attributes.

Representative cognitions; or those in which consciousness
is occupied with the relations among ideas or represented
sensations; as in all acts of recollection.

Re-representative cognitions ; or those in which the
occupation of consciousness is not by representation of
special relations that have before been presented to con-
sciousness; but those in which such represented special
relations are thought of merely as comprehended in a
general relation — those in which the concrete relations
one© experienced, in so far as they become objects of con-
sciousness at all, are incidentally represented, along with
the abstract relation which formulates them. The ideas
resulting from this abstraction, do not themselves represent
actual experiences ; but are symbols which stand for groups
of such actual experiences— represent aggregates of repre-
sentations. And thus they may be called re-representative
cognitions. It is clear that the process of re-representa-

202

BAIN ON THE EMOTIONS AND THE WILL.

tion is carried to higher . stages, as the thought becomes
more abstract.

Feelings, or those inodes of mind in which we are
occupied, not with the relations subsisting between our
sentient states, but with the sentient states themselves, are
divisible into four parallel sub-classes.

Present ative feelings, ordinarily called sensations, are
those mental states in which, instead of regarding a corpo-
real impression as of this or that kind, or as located here or
there, we contemplate it in itself as pleasure or pain ; as
when eating.

Presentutive-representcitive feelings, embracing a great part
of what we commonly call emotions, are those in which a
sensation, or group of sensations, or group of sensations and
ideas, arouses a vast aggregation of represented sensations •
partly of individual experience, but chiefly deeper than
individual experience, and, consequently, indefinite. The
emotion of terror may serve as an example. Along with
certain impressions made on the eyes or ears, or both, are
recalled in consciousness many of the pains to which such
impressions have before been the antecedents; and when
the relation between such impressions and such pains has
been habitual in the race, the definite ideas of such pains
which individual experience has given, are accompanied by
the indefinite pains that result from inherited effects of
experiences — vague feelings which we may call organic
representations. In an infant, crying at a strange sight or
sound while yet in the nurse’s arms, we see these organic
representations called into existence in the shape of dim
discomfort, to which individual experience has yet given no
specific outlines.

Representative feelings, comprehending the ideas of the
feelings above classed, when they are called up apart from
the appropriate external excitements. ‘As instances of
these may be named the feelings with which the de~

BAHT ON THE EMOTIONS AND THE WILL. . 263

soriptive poet writes, and winch are aroused in the minds
of his readers,

Be-representative feelings, under which head are included
those more complex sentient states that are less the direct
results of external excitements than the indirect or reflex
results of them. The love of property is a feeling of this
kind. It is awakened not by the presence of any special
object, but by ownable objects at large ; and it is not from
the mere presence of such object, but from a certain ideal
relation to them, that it arises. As before shown (p. 253)
it consists, not of the represented advantages of possess-
ing this or that, but of the represented advantages of
possession in general— is not made up of certain concrete
representations, but of the abstracts of many concrete
representations ; and so is re-representative. The higher
sentiments, as that of justice, are still more completely of
this nature. Here the sentient state is compounded out
of sentient states that . are themselves wholly, or almost
wholly, re-representative : it involves representations of
those lower emotions which are produced by the possession
of property, by freedom of action, etc. ; and thus is re-
representative in a higher degree.

This classification, here roughly indicated and capable
of further expansion, will be found in harmony with the
results of detailed analysis aided by development. Whether
we trace mental progression through the grades of the
animal kingdom, through the grades of mankind, or through
the stages of: individual growth; it is obvious that the
advance, alike in cognitions and feelings, is, and must be,
from the presentative to the more and more remotely repre-
sentative. It is undeniable that intelligence ascends from
those simple perceptions in which consciousness is occupied
in localizing and classifying Sensations, to perceptions more
and more compound, to simple reasoning, to reasoning
more and- more complex and abstract- — more and more
remote from sensation. And in the evolution of feelings.

264 BAIN - ON THE EMOTIONS AND THE WILL.

there is a parallel series of steps. Simple sensations ; sen-
sations combined together; sensations combined with repre-
sented sensations; represented sensations organized into
groups, in which their separate characters are very much
merged ; representations of these representative groups, in
which the original components have become still more
vague. In both cases, the progress has necessarily been
from the simple and concrete to the complex and abstract ;
and as with the cognitions, so with the feelings, this must
be the basis of classification.

The space here occupied with criticisms on Mr. Bain’s
work, we might have filled with exposition and eulogy, had
we thought this the more important. Though we have
freely pointed out what we conceive to be its defects, let it
not be inferred that we question its great merits. We
repeat that, as a natural history of the mind, we believe it to
be the best yet produced. It is a most valuable collection
of carefully-elaborated materials. Perhaps we cannot
better express our sense of its worth, than by saying that,
to those who hereafter give to this branch of Psychology
a thoroughly scientific organization, Mr. Bain’s book will
be indispensable.

THE SOCIAL ORGANISM.

[First published in The Westminster Review for January , I860,]

Sir James Macintosh got great credit for the saying, that
“ constitutions are not made, but grow.” In our day, the
most significant thing about this saying is, that it was ever
thought so significant. As from the surprise displayed by
a man at some familiar fact, you may judge of his general
culture ; so from the admiration which an age accords to a
new thought, its average degree of enlightenment may be
inferred. That this apophthegm of Macintosh. should have
been quoted and requoted as it has, shows how profound
has been the ignorance of social science. A small ray of
truth has seemed brilliant, as a distant rushlight looks like
a star in the surrounding darkness. •

Such a conception could not, indeed, fail to be startling
when let fall in the midst of a system of thought to which
it was utterly alien. Universally in Macintosh’s day,
things were explained on the hypothesis of 'manufacture,
rather than that of growth; as indeed they are, by the
majority, in our own day. It was held that the planets
were severally projected round the Sun from the Creator’s
hand, with just the velocity required to balance the Sun’s
attraction. The formation of the Barth, the separation of
sea from land, the production of animals, were mechanical
works from which God rested as a labourer rests. Man
was supposed to be moulded after a manner somewhat
akin to that in which a modeller makes a clay-figure. And

266

THE SOCIAL OBGANISar.

of course, in harmony with such ideas, societies were tacitly
assumed to be arranged thus or thus by direct interposition
of Providence • or by the regulations of law-makers; or
by both.

Yet that societies are not artificially put together, is a
truth so manifest, that it seems wonderful men should ever
have overlooked it. Perhaps nothiug more clearly shows
the small value of historical studies, as they have been
commonly pursued. You need but to look at the changes
going on around, or observe social organization in its lead-
ing traits, to see that these are neither supernatural, nor
are determined by the wills of individual men, as by
implication the older historians teach; but are consequent
on general natural causes. The one case of the division of
labour suffices to prove this. It has not been by command
of any ruler that some men have become manufacturers,
while others have remained cultivators of the soil. In
Lancashire, millions have devoted themselves to the making
of cotton-fabrics; in Yorkshire, another million lives by
producing woollens ; and the pottery of Staffordshire, the
cutlery of Sheffield, the hardware of Birmingham, severally
occupy their hundreds of thousands. These are large facts
in. the structure of English society; but we can ascribe
them neither to miracle, nor to legislation. It is not by
“ the hero as king/'’ any more than by “collective wisdom/’
that men have been segregated into producers, wholesale
distributors, ‘and retail distributors. Our industrial orga-
nization, from its main outlines down to its minutest details,
has become what it is, not simply without legislative guid-
ance, but, to a considerable extent, in spite of legislative
hindrances. It has arisen under the pressure of human
wants and resulting activities. While each citizen has
been pursuing his individual welfare, and none taking
thought about division of labour, or conscious of the need
of it, division of labour has yet been ever becoming more
complete. It has been doing this slowly and silently : few

THE SOCIAL ORGANISM.

2 07

having observed it until quite modern times. By steps so
small, that year after year the industrial arrangements
have.' seemed just what they were before — by changes as
insensible as those through which a seed passes into a tree;,
society has become the complex body of mutu ally-dependent
•workers which we now see. And this economic organiza-
tion, mark, is the all-essential organization. Through the
combination thus spontaneously evolved, every citizen is
supplied with daily necessaries ; while he yields some
product or aid to others. That we are severally alive to-day,
we owe to the regular working of this combination during
the past week ; and could it be suddenly abolished, multi-
tudes would be dead before another week ended. If these
most conspicuous and vital arrangements of our social
structure have arisen not by the devising of any one, but
through the individual efforts of citizens to satisfy their
own wants; we may be tolerably certain that the less
important arrangements have similarly arisen.

“But surely,” it will be said, “the social changes
directly produced by law, cannot be classed as spontaneous :
growths. When parliaments or kings order this or that
thing to be done, and appoint officials to do it, the process
is clearly artificial; and society to this extent becomes a
manufacture rather than a growth.” No, not even these
changes are exceptions, if they be real and permanent
changes. The true sources of such changes lie deeper than
the acts of legislators. To take first the simplest instance.
We all know that the enactments of representative govern-
ments ultimately depend on the national will: they may
for a time be out of harmony with it, but eventually they
must conform to it. And to say that the national will
finally determines them, is to say that they result from the
average of individual desires ; or, in other words— from
the average of individual natures. A law so initiated,
therefore, really grows out of the popular character. In
the case of a Government representing a dominant class,

268 THU SOCIAL ORGANISM.

t&e same tiling holds, tliougli not so manifestly. For the
very existence of a class monopolizing all power, is clue to
certain sentiments in the commonalty. Without the feeling
of loyalty on the part of retainers, a feudal system could
not exist. We see in the protest of the Highlanders
against the abolition of heritable jurisdictions, that they
preferred that hind of local rule. And if to the popular
nature must he ascribed the growth of an irresponsible
ruling class ; then to the popular nature must be ascribed
the social arrangements which that class creates in the
pursuit of its own ends. Even where the Government is
despotic, the doctrine still holds. The character of the
people is, as before, the original source of this political
form; and, as we have abundant proof, other forms
suddenly created will not act, but rapidly retrograde to the
old form. Moreover, such regulations as a despot makes,
if really operative, are so because of their fitness to the
social state. His acts being very much swayed by general
opinion— -by precedent, by the feeling of his nobles, his
priesthood, his army — are in part immediate results of the
national character; and when they are out of harmony with
the national character, they are soon practically abrogated.
The failure of Cromwell permanently to establish a new
social condition, and the rapid revival of suppressed insti-
tutions and practices after his death, show how powerless
is a monarch to change the type of the society he governs.
He may disturb, he may retard, or he may aid the natural
process of organization ; but the general course of this
process is beyond his control. Hay, more than this is true.
Those who regard the histories of societies as the histories
of their great men, and think that these great men shape
the fates of their societies, overlook the truth that such
great men are the products of their societies. Without
certain antecedents— without a certain average national
character, they neither- could have been generated nor
could have had the culture which formed them. If their

THE SOCIAL OEGAN1SM.

269

society is to some extent rc-moulded by therm, they were,
both before and. after birth, moulded by their society —
were the results of all those influences which fostered the
ancestral character they inherited, and gave their own
early bias, their creed, morals, knowledge, aspirations. So
that such social changes as are immediately traceable to
individuals of unusual power, are still remotely traceable
to the social causes which produced these individuals ; and
hence, from the highest point of view, such social changes
also, are parts of the general developmental process.

Thus that which is so obviously true of the industrial
structure of society, is true of its whole structure. The
fact that “ constitutions are not made, but grow,” is simply
a fragment of the much larger fact, that under all its
aspects and through all its ramifications, society is a
growth and not a manufacture.

A perception that there exists some analogy between
the body politic and a living individual body, was early
reached ; and has from time to time re-appeared in litera-
ture. But this perception was necessarily vague and more
or less fanciful. In the absence of physiological science,
and especially of those comprehensive generalizations which
it has but lately reached, it was impossible to discern the
real parallelisms.

The central idea of Plato’s model Republic, is the corre-
spondence between the parts of a society and the faculties
of the human mind. Classifying these faculties under
the heads of Reason, Will, and Passion, he classifies the
members of his ideal society under what he regards as
three analogous heads : — councillors, who are to exercise
government ; military or executive, who are to fulfil their
behests ; and the commonalty, bent on gain and selfish
gratification. In other words, the ruler, the warrior, and
the craftsman, are, according to him, the analogues of our
reflective, volitional, and emotional powers. Now even

270 THE SOCIAL ORGANISM.

were there truth in. the implied assumption of a parallelism
between the structure of a society and that of a man., this
classification would be indefensible. It might more truly
be contended that, as the military power obeys the com-
mands of the Government, it is the Government which
answers to the Will; while the military power is simply
an agency set in motion hy it. Or, again, it might be
contended that whereas the Will is a product of predom-
inant desires, to which the Reason serves merely as an
eye, it is the craftsmen, who, according to the alleged
analogy, ought to he the moving power of the warriors.

Hobbes sought to establish a still more definite parallelism :
not, however, between a society and the human mind, but
between a society and the human body. In the introduc-
tion to the work in which he develops this conception,
he says —

“ For by art is created that great Leviathan called a Commonwealth, or
State, in Latin Civitas, which is but an artificial man ; though of greater
stature and strength than the natural, for whose protection and defence it
Was intended, and in which the sovereignty is an artificial soul, as giving life
and motion to the whole body ; the magistrates and other officers of judica-
ture and execution, artificial joints; reward and punishment; by which,
fastened to the seat of the sovereignty, every joint and member is moved to
perform his duty, are the nerves, that do the same in the body natural; the
wealth and riclm of all the particular members are the strength; sains
populi, the people's safety, its business; counsellors, by whom all things
needful for it to know are suggested unto it, are the memory ; equity and
laws an artificial reason and will; concord, health; sedition, sickness ; and
civil tear, death,"

And Hobbes carries this comparison so far as’ actually to
give a drawing of the Leviathan — a vast human-shaped
figure, whose body and limbs are made up of multitudes
of men. . Just noting that these different analogies asserted
by Plato and Hobbes, serve to cancel each other (being,
as they are, so completely at variance), we may say that
on the whole those of Hobbes are ' the more plausible.
But they are full of inconsistencies. If the sovereignty
is the soul of the body-politic, how can it be that magis-
trates, who are a kind of deputy-sovereigns, should be

THE SOCIAL ORGANISM. 271

comparable to joints ? Or, again, how can the three
mental functions, memory, reason, and will, be severally
analogous, the first to counsellors, who are a class of public
officers, and the other two to equity and laws, which are
not classes of officers, but abstractions ? Or, once more,
if magistrates are the artificial joints of society, how can
reward and punishment be its nerves ? Its nerves must
surely be some class of persons. Reward and punishment
must in societies, as in individuals, be conditions of the
nerves, and not the nerves themselves.

But the chief errors of these comparisons made by Plato
and Hobbes, lie much deeper. Both thinkers assume that
the ‘ organization of a society is comparable, not simply to
the organization of a living body in general, but to tho
organization of the human body in particular. There is
no warrant whatever for assuming this. It is in no way
implied by the evidence; and is simply one of those
fancies which we commonly find mixed up with the truths
of early speculation. Still more erroneous are the two
conceptions in this, that they construe a society as an
artificial structure. Plato’s model republic — his ideal of a
healthful body-politic — is to be consciously put together
by men, just as a watch might be ; and Plato manifestly
thinks of societies in general as thus originated. Quite
specifically does Hobbes express a like view. * f 3Por by
art/’ he says, “ is created that great Leviathan called a
Commonwealth.” And he even, goes so far as to compare
the supposed social contract, from which a society suddenly
originates, to the creation of a man by the divine fiat.
Thus they both fall into the extreme inconsistency of. con-
sidering a community as similar in structure to a human
being, and yet as produced in the same way as an artificial
mechanism — -in nature, an organism ; in history, a machine.

Notwithstanding errors, however, these speculations have
considerable significance. That such likenesses, crudely as
they are thought out, should have been alleged by Plato

270

THE SOCIAL ORGANISM.

•were there truth in the implied assumption of a parallelism
between the structure of a society and that of a man, this
classification would be indefensible. It might more truly
be contended that, as the military power obeys the com-
mands of the Government, it is the Government which
answers to the Will; while the military power is simply
an agency set in motion by it. Or, again, it might be
contended that whereas the Will is a product of predom-
inant desires, to which the Eeason serves merely as an
eye, it is the craftsmen, who, according to the alleged
analogy, ought to be the moving power of the warriors.

Hobbes sought to establish a still more definite parallelism :
not, however, between a society and the human mind, but
between a society and the human body. In the introduc-
tion to the work in which he develops this conception,
he says —

“For by art is created that great Leviathan called a Commonwealth, or
State, in Latin Civitas, which is but an artificial man ; though of greater
stature and strength than the natural, for whose protection and defence it
was intended, and in which the sovereignty is an artificial soul, as giving life
and motion to the whole body ; the magistrates and other officers of judica-
ture and execution, artificial joints; reward and punishment , by which,
fastened to the seat of the sovereignty, every joint and member is moved to
perform his duty, are the nerves , that So the same in the body natural ; the
wealth and riches of all the particular members are the strength ; lulus
pbpuli, the people's safety, its business ; counsellors, by whom all things
needful for it to know are suggested unto it, are the memory ; equity and
laws an artificial reason and will; concord, health; sedition, sickness; and
civil tear, death."

And Hobbes carries this comparison so far as' actually to
give a drawing tof the Leviathan— a vast human-shaped
figure, whose body and limbs are made up of multitudes
of men. . Just noting that these different analogies asserted
by Plato and Hobbes, serve to cancel each other (being,
as they are, so completely at variance), we may say that
on the whole those of Hobbes are the more plausible.
But they are full of inconsistencies. If the sovereignty
is the soul of the body-politic, how can it be that magis-
trates, who are a kind of deputy-sovereigns, should* be

.THE SOCIAL ORGANISM.

271

comparable to joints? Or, again, bow can the three
mental functions, memory, reason, and will, be severally
analogous, the first to counsellors, who are a class of public
officers, and the other two to equity and laws, which are
not classes of officers, but abstractions ? Or, once more,
if magistrates are the artificial joints of society, how can
reward and punishment be its nerves ? Its nerves must
surely be some class of persons. Reward and punishment
must in societies, as in individuals, be conditions of the
nerves, and not the nerves themselves.

But the chief errors of these comparisons made by Plato
and Hobbes, lie much deeper. Both thinkers assume that
the ‘ organization of a society is comparable, not simply to
the organization of a living body in general, but to the
organization of the human body in particular. There is
no warrant whatever for assuming this. It is in no way
implied by the evidence ; and is simply one of those
fancies which we commonly find mixed up with the truths
of early speculation. Still more erroneous are the two
conceptions in this, that they construe a society as an
artificial structure. Plato’s model republic — his ideal of a
healthful body-politic — is to be consciously put together
by men, just as a watch might be ; and Plato manifestly
thinks of societies in g-eneral as thus originated. Quite
specifically does Hobbes express a like view. “ For by
art,” he says, “is created that great Leviathan called a
Commonwealth.” And he even goes so far as to compare
the supposed social contract, from which a society suddenly
originates, to the creation of a man by the divine fiat.
Thus they both fall into the extreme inconsistency of con-
sidering a community as similar in structure to a human
being, and yet as produced in the same way as an artificial
mechanism— in nature, an organism; in history, a machine.

Notwithstanding errors, however, these speculations have
considerable significance. That such likenesses, crudely as
they are thought out, should have been alleged by Plato

272 THE SOCIAL ORGANISM.

and Hobbes and others, is a reason for suspecting that
some analogy exists. The nntenableness of the particular
parallelisms above instancod, is no ground for denying an
essential parallelism ; since early ideas are usually but
vague adumbrations of the truth. Lacking the great
generalizations of biology, it was, as we have said, impos-
sible to trace out the real relations of social organizations
to organizations of another order. We propose here to show
what are the analogies which, modern science discloses.

Let us set out by succinctly stating the points of simi-
larity and the points of difference. Societies agree with
individual organisms in four conspicuous peculiarities : —

1. That commencing as small aggregations, they
insensibly augment in mass : some of them eventually
reaching ten thousand times what they originally were,

2. That while at first so simple in structure as to be con-
sidered structureless, they assume, in the course of their
growth, a continually-increasing complexity of structure.

8. That though in their early, undeveloped states, there
exists in them scarcely any mutual dependence of parts,
their parts gradually acquire a mutual dependence; which
becomes at last so great, that the activity and life of each
part is made possible only by the activity and li fe of the rest.

4. That the life of a society is independent of, and far
more prolonged than, the lives of any of its component
units; who are severally born, grow, work, reproduce, and
die, while the body-politic composed of them survives
generation after generation, increasing in mass, in com-
pleteness of structure, and in functional activity.

These four parallelisms will appear the more significant
the more we contemplate them. While the points specified,
are points in which societies agree with individual organ-
isms, they are also points in which individual organisms
agree with one another, and disagree with all things else.
In the course of its existence, every plant and. animal

THE SOCIAL ORGANISM. 273

increases in mass, in a way not paralleled by inorganic
objects : even such, inorganic objects ' as crystals, which
arise by growth, show us no such definite relation between
growth and existence as organisms do. The orderly
progress from simplicity to complexity, displayed by
bodies-politic in common with living bodies, is a charac-
teristic which distinguishes living bodies from the inanimate
bodies-amid which they move. That functional depend-
ence of parts, which is scarcely more manifest in animals
than in nations, has no counterpart elsewhere. And in
no aggregate except an organic or a social one, is there
a perpetual removal and replacement of parts, joined
with a continued integrity of the whole. Moreover, societies
and organisms are not only alike in these peculiarities, in
which they are unlike all other things; hut the highest
societies, like the highest organisms, exhibit them in the
greatest degree. We see that the lowest animals do not
increase to anything like the sizes of the higher ones; and,
similarly, we see that aboriginal societies are comparatively
limited in their growths. In complexity, our large civilized
nations as much exceed primitive savage tribes, as a
mammal does a zoophyte. Simple communities, like simple
creatures, have so little mutual dependence of parts, that
mutilation or subdivision causes hut little inconvenience ;
but from complex communities, as from complex creatures,
you cannot remove any considerable organ without pro-
ducing great disturbance or death of the rest. And in
societies of low type, as in inferior animals, the life of
the aggregate, often cut short by division or dissolution,
exceeds in length the lives of the component units, very-
far less than in civilized communities and superior auimals;
which outlive many generations of their component units.

On the other hand, the leading differences between
societies and individual organisms are these : —

1. That societies have no specific external forms. This,
however, is a point of contrast which loses much of its

274

THE SOCIAL ORGANISM.

importance, when we remember . that throughout the
vegetal kingdom, as well as in somo lower divisions of the
animal kingdom, the forms are often very indefinite —
definiteness being rather tbe exception than the rule ; and
that they are manifestly in part determined by surrounding
physical circumstances, as the forms of societies are. If,
too, it should eventually be shown, as we believe it will,
that the form of every species of organism has resulted
from the average play of the external forces to which it
has been subject during its evolution as a species \ then, that
the external forms of societies should depend, as they do, on
surrounding conditions, will he a further point of community.

2. That though the living tissue whereof an individual
organism consists, forms a continuous mass, the living
elements of a society do not form a continuous mass ; but
are more or less widely dispersed over some portion of the
Earth’s surface. This, which at first sight appears to be
an absolute distinction, is one which yet to a great extent
fades when we contemplate all the facts. For, in the lower
divisions of the animal and vegetal kingdoms, there are
types of organization much more nearly allied, in this
respect, to the organization of a society, than might be
supposed — types in which the living units essentially com-
posing the mass, are dispersed through an inert substance,
that can scarcely he called living in the full sense of the
word. It is thus with some of the Protococci and with the
Nostoescc, which exist as cells imbedded in a viscid matter.
It is so, too, with the Thalassicollm - — bodies made up of
differentiated parts, dispersed through' an undifferentiated
jelly. And throughout considerable portions of their
bodies, some of the Acalephce exhibit more or less this type
of structure. How this is very much the case with a society.
For we must remember that though the men who make up
a society are physically separate, and even scattered, yet
the surface over which they are scattered is not one devoid
of life, but is covered by life of a lower order which

THIS SOCIAL ORGANISM. 275

ministers to their life. The vegetation -which clothes a
countxy makes possible the animal life in that country; and
only through its animal and vegetal products can such a
country support a society. Hence the members of the
body-politic are not to be regarded as separated by
intervals of dead space, but as diffused through a space
occupied by life of a lower order. In our conception of a
social organism, we must include nil that lower organic
existence on which human existence, and therefore social
existence, depend. And when we do this, we see that the
citizens who make up a community may be considered as
highly vitalized units surrounded by substances of lower
vitality, from which they draw their nutriment : much as
in the cases above instanced.

8. The third difference is that while the ultimate living
elements of an individual organism are mostly fixed in
their relative positions, those of the social organism are
capable of moving from place to place. But here, too, the
disagreement is much less than would be supposed. For
while citizens are locomotive in their private capacities,
they are fixed in their public capacities. As farmers,
manufacturers, or traders, men carry on their businesses
at the same spots, often throughout their whole lives; and
if they go away occasionally, they leave behind others to
discharge their functions in their absence. Each great
centre of production, each manufacturing town or district,
continues always in the same place; and many of the firms
in such town or district, are for generations carried on
either by the descendants or successors of those who
founded them. Just as in a living body, the cells that
make up some important organ severally perform their
functions for a time and then disappear, leaving others to
supply their places ; so, in each part of a society the organ
remains, though the persons who compose it change. Thus,
in social life, as in the life of an animal, the units as well
as the larger agencies formed of them, are in the main

270 THE SOCIAL ORGANISM.

stationary as respects the places where they discharge their
duties and obtain their sustenance. And hence the power
of individual locomotion does not practically affect the
analogy.

4. The last and perhaps the most important distinction
is, that while in the body of an animal only a special tissue
is endowed with feeling, in a society all the members are
endowed with feeling. Even this distinction, however, is
not a complete one. For in some of the lowest animals,
characterized hy the absence of a nervous system, such
sensitiveness as exists is possessed by all parts. It is only
in the more organized forms that feeling is monopolized by
one class of the vital elements. ■ And we must remember
that societies, too, are not without a certain differentiation
of this kind. Though the units of a community are all
sensitive, they are so in unequal degrees. The classes
engaged in laborious occupations are less susceptible,
intellectually and emotionally, than the rest; and especially
less so than the classes of highest mental culture. Still, we
have here a tolerably decided contrast between bodies-
politic and individual bodies; and it is one which we
should keep constantly in view. For it reminds us that
while, in individual bodies, the welfare of all other parts is
rightly subservient to the welfare of the nervous system,
whose pleasurable or painful activities make up the good
or ill of life ; in bodies-politic the same thing does not
hold, or holds to hut a very slight extent. It is well that
the lives of all parts of an animal should be merged in the
life of the 'whole, because the whole has a corporate con-
sciousness capable of happiness or misery. But it is not so
with a society ; since its living units do not and cannot
lose individual consciousness, and since the community as a
whole has no corporate consciousness. This is an everlast-
ing reason why the welfares of citizens cannot rightly be
sacrificed to some supposed benefit of the State, and why,
on the other hand, the State is to be maintained solely

THE SOCIAL ORGANISM. 277

for tlie benefit of citizens, Tbe corporate life most Here
be subservient to tbe lives of tbe parts, instead of tbe lives
of the parts being subservient to the corporate life.

Such/ then, are the points of analogy and the points of
difference. May we not say that the points of difference
serve but to bring into clearer light tbe points of analogy ?
While comparison makes definite the obvious contrasts
between organisms commonly so called, and the social
organism, it shows that even these contrasts are not so
decided as was to be expected. The indefiniteness of form,
the discontinuity of the parts, and the universal sensitive-
ness, are not only peculiarities of the social organism which
have to be stated with considerable qualifications; but they
are peculiarities to which the inferior classes of animals
present approximations. Thus we find but little to conflict
with the all-important analogies. Societies slowly augment
in mass ; they progress in complexity of structure; at the
same time their parts become more mutually dependent ;
their living units are removed and replaced without
destroying their integrity; and the extents to which they
display these peculiarities are proportionate to their vital
activities. These are traits that societies have in common
with organic bodies. And these traits in which they agree
with organic bodies and disagree with all other things,
entirely subordinate the minor distinctions : such distinc-
tions being scarcely greater than those which separate on©
half of the organic kingdom from the other. The principles
of organization are the same, and the differences are simply
differences of ’application.

Here ending this general survey of the facts which
justify the comparison of a society with a living body, let us
look at them in detail. We shall find that the parallelism
becomes the more marked the more closely it is examined.

The lowest animal and vegetal forms — Protozoa and
Vrolophyta — -are chiefly inhabitants of the water. They

278

THE SOCIAL ORGANISM.

are minute bodies, most of which are made individually
visible only by the microscope. All of them are extremely
simple in structure, and some of them, as the IihimpocU ,
almost structureless. •, Multiplying, as they ordinarily do,
by the spontaneous division of their bodies, they produce
halves which may either become quite separate and move
away in different directions, or may continue attached. By
the repetition . of this process of fission, aggregations of
various sizes and kinds are formed. Among the Protophyta
we have some classes, as the Diatomacece and the Yeast-
plant, in which the individuals may be either separate or
attached in groups of two, three, four, or more; other
classes in which a considerable number of cells are united
into a thread {Conferva, Monilia ) ; others in which they
form a network {Eydrodidyon); others in which they form
plates {Viva) ; and others in which they form masses
{Laminaria, Agaricus ) : all which vegetal forms, having no
distinction of root, stem, or leaf, are called Thallogms .
Among the Protozoa we find parallel facts. Immense
numbers of Amceba* like creatures, massed together in a
framework of horny fibres, constitute Sponge. In the
Foraminifera we see smaller groups of such creatures
arranged into more definite shapes. Mot only do these
almost structureless Protozoa unite into regular or irregular
aggregations of various sizes, but among some of the more
organized ones, as the Vorticellce, there are also produced
clusters of individuals united to a common stem. But
these little societies of monads, or cells, or whatever else
we may call them, are societies only in the lowest sense :
there is no subordination of parts among them— -no organiz-
ation. Each of the component units lives by and for itself ;
neither giving nor receiving aid. The only mutual depend-
ence is that consequent on mechanical union.

Do we not here discern analogies to the first stages of
human societies ? Among the lowest races, as the Bushmen,
wo find hue incipient aggregation: sometimes single

THE SOCIAL ORGANISM,

279

families, sometimes two or three families wandering about
together. The number of associated units is small and
variable, and their union inconstant. No division of labour
exists except between the sexes, and the only kind of
mutual aid is that of joint attack or defence. We see an
undifferentiated group of individuals, forming the germ
of a society ; just as in the homogeneous groups of cells
above described, we see the initial stage of animal and
vegetal organization.

The comparison may now be carried a step higher. In
the vegetal kingdom we pass from the Thallogens, consist-
ing of mere masses of similar cells, to the Acrogens, in
which the cells are not similar throughout the whole mass y
but are here aggregated into a structure serving as leaf
and there into a structure serving as root; thus forming a
whole in which there is a certain subdivision of functions
among the units, and therefore a certain mutual depend-
ence. In the animal kingdom we find analogous progress.
From mere unorganized groups of cells, or cell-like bodies,
w© ascend to groups of such cells arranged into parts that
have different duties. The common Polype, from the
substance of which may be separated cells that exhibit,
when detached, appearances and movements like those of a
solitary Amatba, illustrates this stage. The component units,
though still showing great community of character, assume
somewhat diverse functions in the skin, in the internal
surface, and in the tentacles. There is a certain amount
of cc physiological division of labour.”

Turning to societies, we find these stages paralleled in
most aboriginal tribes. When, instead of such small
variable groups as are formed by Bushmen, we come to
the larger and more permanent groups formed by savages
not quite so low, we find traces of social structure. Though
industrial organization scarcely shows itself, except in the
different occupations of the sexes; yet there is more or
less of governmental organization. While all the men are
13

280

THE SOCIAL ORGANISM.

warriors and hunters/ only a part of them are included in
tlie council of chiefs ; and in this council of chiefs some
one has commonly supreme authority. There is. thus a
certain distinction of classes and powers; and through
this slight specialization of functions is effected a rude
co-operation among the increasing'’ mass of individuals,
whenever the society has to act in its corporate capacity.
Beyond this analogy in the slight extent to which organiza-
tion is carried, there is analogy in the indefiniteness of
the organization. In the Hydra, the respective parts of
the creature’s substance* have many functions in common.
They are all contractile; omitting the tentacles, the whole
of the external surface can give origin to young hydra);
and, when turned inside out, stomach performs the duties
of skin and skin the duties of stomach. In aboriginal
societies such differentiations as exist are similarly imper-
fect, Notwithstanding distinctions of rank, all persons
maintain themselves by their own exertions. Hot only
do the head men of the tribe, in common with the rest,
build their own huts, make their own weapons, kill their
own food; but the chief does the like. Moreover, such
governmental organization as exists is inconstant. It is
frequently changed by violence or treachery, and the
function of ruling assumed by some other warrior. Thus
between the rudest societies and some of the lowest forms
of animal life, there, is analogy alike in the slight extent
to which organization is carried, in the mdefiniteness of
this organization, and in its want of fixity.

A further complication of the analogy is at hand. From
the aggregation of units into organized groups, we pass to
the multiplication of such groups, and their coalescence
into compound groups. The Hydra , when it has reached
a certain bulk, puts forth from its surface a bud which,
growing and gradually assuming the form of the parent,
finally becomes detached; and by this process of gem-
mation the creature peoples the adjacent water with others

THE SOCIAL ORGANISM.

281

like itself. A parallel process is seen in tke multiplication
of tliose lowly-organized tribes above described. When
one of them lias increased to a size that is either too great
for co-ordination under so rude a structure, or else that is
greater than the surrounding country can supply with
game and other wild food, there arises a tendency to
divide ; and as in such .communities' ..there often occur
quarrels, jealousies, and other causes of division, there
soon, comes an occasion on which a part of the tribe sep-
arates under the leadership of some subordinate chief and
migrates. This process being from time to time repeated,
an. extensive region is at length occupied by numerous
tribes descended from a common ancestry. The analogy
by no means ends here. Though in the common Hydra
the young ones that hud out from the parent soon become
detached and independent ; yet throughout the rest of the
class Rydrozoa, to which this creature belongs, the like
does not generally happen. The successive individuals
thus developed continue attached; give origin to other
such individuals which also continue attached ; and so
there results a compound animal. As in the Hydra itself
we find an aggregation of units whieh, considered separ-
ately, are akin to the lowest Protozoa ; so here, in a
Zoophyte , we find an aggregation of such aggregations.
The like is also seen throughout the extensive family of
Polyzoa, or Molluseoida. The Ascidian Mollusks, too, in
their many forms, show us the same thing: exhibiting, at
the same time, various degrees of union among the com-
ponent individuals. For while in the Salpce the component
individuals adhere so slightly that a blow on the vessel of
water in which they are floating will separate them ; in the
Hotryllidee there exist vascular connexions among them,
and a common circulation. Now in these different stages
of aggregation, may we not see paralleled the union of
groups of connate tribes into nations ? Though, in regions
where circumstances permit, the tribes descended from

282

the social organism.

some original tribe migrate in all directions, and become
far removed and quite separate ; yet, where the territory
presents barriers to distant migration, this does not happen :
the small kindred communities are held in closer contact,
and eventually become more or less united into a nation.
The contrast between the tribes of American Indians and
the Scottish clans, illustrates this. And a glance at our
own early history, or the early histories of continental
nations, shows this fusion of small simple communities
taking place in various ways and to various extents. As
says M. Guizot, in his History of the Origin of Repre-
sentative Government , — -

“ By degrees, in the midst of the chaos of the rising society, small aggrega-
tions are formed which feel the want of alliance and union with each other.
... Soon inequality of strength is displayed among neighbouring
aggregations. The strong tend to subjugate the weak, and usurp at first the
rights of taxation and military service. Thus political authority leaves the
aggregations which first instituted it, to take a wider range.”

That is to say, the small tribes, elans, or feudal groups,
sprung mostly from a common stock, and long hold in con-
tact as occupants of adjacent lands, gradually get united in
other ways than by kinship and proximity.

A further series of changes begins now to take place,
to which, as before, we find analogies in individual organ-
isms. : Returning to the Hydrozoa, we observe that in the
simplest of the compound forms the connected individuals
are alike in structure, and perform like functions ; with
the exception that here and there a bud, instead of
developing into a stomach, mouth, and tentacles, becomes
an egg-sac. But with the oceanic Hydrozoa this is by no
means the case. In the Galycophoridce some of the polypes
growing from the common germ, become developed and
modified into large, long, sack -like bodies, which, by their
rhythmical contractions, move through the water, dragging
the community of polypes after them. In the Physophoridm
a variety of organs similarly arise by transformation of the
budding polypes ; so that in creatures like the physalia.

THE SOCIAL ORGANISM,

283

commonly known as the cc Portuguese Man-of-war,” instead
of tliat tree-like group of similar individuals forming the
original type, we have a complex mass of unlike parts
fulfilling unlike duties. As an individual Hydra may be
regarded as a group of Protozoa which have become par-
tially metamorphosed into different organs ; so a Physalia
is, morphologically considered, a group of Hydras of which
the individuals have been variously transformed to fit them
for various functions.

This differentiation upon differentiation is just what
takes place during the evolution of a civilized society. We
observed how, in the small communities first formed, there
arises a simple political organization : there is a partial
separation of classes having different duties. And now we
have to observe how, in a nation formed by the fusion of
such small communities, the several sections, at first alike
in structures and modes of activity, grow unlike in both —
gradually become mutually-dependent parts, diverse in
their natures and functions.

The doctrine of the progressive division of labour, to
which we are here introduced, is familiar to all readers.
And further, the analogy between the economical division
of labour and the “ physiological division of labour,” is so
striking as long since to have drawn the attention of
scientific naturalists : so striking, indeed, that the expres-
sion “ physiological division of labour,” has been suggested
by it. It is not needful, therefore, to treat this part of the
subject in great detail. We shall content ourselves with
noting a few general and significant facts, not manifest on
a first inspection.

Throughout the whole animal kingdom, from the Coelen-
terata upwards, the first stage of evolution is the same.
Equally in the germ of a polype and in the human ovum,
the aggregated mass of cells out of which the creature is to
arise, gives origin to a peripheral layer of cells, slightly

284

THE SOCIAL ORGANISM.

differing from the rest which they include.; and tins layer
subsequently divides into two— the inner, lying in contact:
with the included yelk, being called tho mucous layer, and
the outer, exposed to surrounding agencies, being called the
serous layer: or, in the terms used by Prof. Huxley, in
describing the development of the Hydrozoa — the eudoderm
and ectoderm. This primary division marks out a funda-
mental contrast of parts in the future organism. From the
mucous layer, or endoderm, is developed the apparatus of:
nutrition ; while from the serous layer, or ectoderm, is
developed the apparatus of external action. Out of the
one arise the organs by which food is prepared and
absorbed, oxygen imbibed, and blood purified j while put
of the other arise the nervous, muscular, and osseous
systems, by the combined actions of which the movements
of the body as a whole are effected. Though this is not a
rigorously-correct distinction, seeing that some organs
involve both of these primitive membranes, yet high
authorities agree in stating it as a broad general distinc-
tion. Well, in the evolution of a society, we see a primary
differentiation of analogous kind, which similarly underlies
the whole future structure. As already pointed out, tho
only manifest contrast of parts in primitive societies, is
that between the governing and the governed. In the
least organized tribes, the council of chiefs may be a
body of: men distinguished simply by greater courage or
experience. In more organized tribes, the chief-class is
definitely separated from the lower class, and often regarded
as different in nature — sometimes as god-descended. And
later, we find these two becoming respectively freemen and.
slaves, or nobles and serfs. A glance at their respective
functions, makes it obvious that the great divisions thus
early formed, stand to each other in a relation similar to
that in which the primary divisions of the embryo stand to
each other. For, from its first appearance, the warrior-
class, headed by chiefs, is that by which the external acts

285

THE SOCIAL ORGANISM.

of tlio society are carried on ; alike in war, in negotiation,
and in migration. Afterwards, while this upper elass grows
distinct from the lower, and at the same time becomes
more and more exclusively regulative and defensive in its
functions, alike in the persons of kings and subordinate
rulers, priests, and soldiers ; the inferior class becomes
more and more exclusively occupied in providing the neces-
saries of life for the community at large. From the soil,
with which it comes in most direct contact, the mass of the
people takes up, and prepares for use, the food and such
rude articles of manufacture as are known; while the
overlying mass of superior men, maintained by the
working population, deals with circumstances external to
the community— circumstances with which, by position,
it is more immediately concerned. Ceasing by-aiid-by to
have any knowledge of, or power over, the concerns of the
•society as a whole, the serf-class becomes devoted to the
processes of alimentation ; while the noble class, ceasing
to take any part in the processes of alimentation, becomes
devoted to the co-ordinated movements of the entire
Body-politic.

Equally remarkable is a further analogy of like kind.
After the mucous and serous layers of the embryo have
separated, there presently arises between the two a third,
known to physiologists as the vascular layer — a layer out of
which are developed the chief blood-vessels. The mucous
layer absorbs nutriment from the mass of yelk it encloses ;
this nutriment has to be transferred to the overlying serous
layer, out of which the nervo-muscular system is being
developed ; and between the two arises a vascular system
by which the transfer is effected — a system of vessels which
continues ever after to be the transferrer of nutriment
from the places where it is absorbed and prepared, to the
places where it is needed for growth and repair. W ell,
may we not trace a parallel step in social progress ?
Between the governing and the governed, there at first

286

TEE SOCIAL ORGANISM.

exists ho intermediate class; and even in some societies
that have reached considerable sizes, there are scarcely any
but the nobles and their kindred oil the one hand, and the
serfs on the other : the social structure being such that
transfer of commodities takes place directly from slaves
to their masters. But in societies of a higher type, there
grows up, between these two primitive classes, another—
the trading or middle class. Equally at first as now, we
may see that, speaking generally, this middle class is the
analogue of the middle layer in the embryo. For all
traders are essentially distributors. Whether they be
wholesale dealers, who collect into large masses the com-
modities of various producers ; or whether they be retailers,
who divide out to those who want them, the masses of
commodities thus collected together; all mercantile men,
are agents of transfer from the places where things are
produced to the places where they are consumed. Thus
the distributing apparatus in a society, answers to the
distributing apparatus in a living body; not only in its
functions, but in its intermediate origin and subsequent
position, and in the time of its appearance.

Without enumerating the minor differentiations which
these three great classes afterwards undergo, wo will merely
note that throughout, they follow the same general law with
the differentiations of an individual organism. In a society,
as in a rudimentary animal, we have seen that the most
general and broadly contrasted divisions are the first to
make their appearance; and of the subdivisions it con-
tinues true in both cases, that they arise in the order of
decreasing generality.

Let us observe, next, that in the one ease as in the other,
the specializations are at first very incomplete, and approach
completeness as organization progresses. We saw that in
primitive tribes, as in the simplest animals, there remains
much community of function between the parts which are
nominally different — that, for instance, the class of chiefs

287 -

THE SOCIAL ORGANISM.

long remains industrially the same as the inferior class ;
just as in a Hydra , the property of contractility is possessed
by the units of the endoderm as well as by those of the
ectoderm. We noted also how, as the society advanced,
the two great primitive classes partook less and less of
each other’s functions. And we have here to remark
that all subsequent specializations are at first vague
and gradually become distinct. <f .In the infancy of
society,” says M. G-uizot, “ everything is confused and
uncertain ; there is as yet no fixed and precise line of
demarcation between the different powers in a state.”
“ Originally kings lived like other landowners, on the
incomes derived from their own private estates.” Nobles
were petty kings ; and kings only the most powerful
nobles. Bishops were feudal lords and military leaders. The
right of coining money was possessed by powerful subjects,
and by the Church, as well as by the king. Every leading
man exercised alike the functions of landowner, farmer,
soldier, statesman, judge. Retainers were now soldiers,
and now labourers, as the day required. But by degrees
the Church has lost all civil jurisdiction; the State has
exercised less and less control over religious teaching ; the
military class has grown a distinct one; handicrafts have
concentrated in towns; and the spinning-wheels of scattered
farmhouses, have disappeared before the machinery of
manufacturing districts. Not only is all progress from the
homogeneous to the heterogeneous, but, at the same time,
it is from the indefinite to the definite.

Another fact which should not be passed over, is that in
the evolution of a large society out of a cluster of small
ones, there is a gradual obliteration of the original lines of
separation — -a change to which, also, we may see analogies
in living bodies. The sub-kingdom Annulosa, furnishes
good illustrations. Among the lower types the body con-
sists of numerous segments that are alike in nearly every
particular. Each has its external ring; its pair of legs.

288 ;

TUB SOCIAL ORGANISM.

if the creature lias legs; its equal portion of intestine, or
else its separate stomach; its equal portion of the great
blood-vessel,, or, in somo cases, its separate 'heart; its
equal portion of the nervous cord ; and, perhaps, its separate
pair of ganglia. But in the highest types, as in the large
Grustacea , many of the segments are completely fused
together; and the internal organs are no longer uniformly
repeated in all the segments. Now the segments of which
nations at first consist/ lose their separate external and
internal structures in a similar manner. In feudal times
the minor communities, governed by feudal lords, were
severally organized in the same rude way, and were held
together only by the fealty of their respective rulers to a
suzerain. But along with the growth of a central power,
the demarcations of these local communities become
relatively unimportant, and their separate organizations
merge into the general organization. The like is seen on a
larger scale in the fusion of England, Wales, Scotland,
and Ireland ; and, on the Continent, in the coalescence of
provinces into kingdoms. Even in the disappearance of
law-made divisions, the process is analogous. Among
the Anglo-Saxons, England was divided into tithings,
hundreds, and counties : there were co unty-co u rts , courts
of hundred, and courts of tithing. The courts of tithing
disappeared first; then the courts of hundred, which have,
however, left traces; while the county-jurisdiction still
exists. Chiefly, however, it is to be noted, that there
eventually grows up an organization which has no reference
to these original divisions, but traverses them, in various
directions, as is the case in creatures belonging to the
sub-kingdom just named • and, further, that in both eases
it is the sustaining organization which thus traverses old
boundaries, while, in both cases, it is the governmental, or
co-ordinating organization in which the original boundaries
continue traceable. Thus, in the highest Annulosa the
exo-skeleton and the muscular system never lose all traces

289

THE SOCIAL ORGANISM.

of their primitive segmentation; but throughout a great
part of the body, the contained viscera do not in tlie least
conform to tlie external divisions. Similarly with, a
nation we see that while, for governmental purposes, such
divisions as comities and parishes still exist, the structure
developed for carrying on the nutrition of society wholly
ignores these boundaries: our great cotton-manufacture
spreads out of Lancashire into North Derbyshire ; ■
Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire have long divided
the stocking- trade between them; one great centre for
the production of iron and iron-goods, includes parts of
Warwickshire, Staffordshire, and Worcestershire; and
those various specializations of agriculture which have
made different parts of England noted for different
products, show no more respect to county-boundaries than
do our growing towns to the boundaries of parishes.

If, after contemplating these analogies of structure, we
inquire whether there are any such analogies between the
processes of organic change, the answer is— yes. The
causes which lead to increase of bulk in any part of the
body-politic, are of like nature with those which lead to
increase of bulk in any part of an individual body. In
both cases the antecedent is greater functional activity
consequent on greater demand. Each limb, viscus, gland,
or other member of an animal, is developed by exercise —
by actively discharging the duties which the body at large
requires of it ; and similarly, any class of labourers or
artisans, any manufacturing centre, or any official agency,
begins to enlarge when the community devolves on it more
work. In each case, too, growth has its conditions and its
limits. That any organ in a living being may grow by
exercise, there needs a due supply of blood. All action
implies waste ; blood brings the materials for repair ; and
before there can be growth, the quantity of blood supplied
must be more than is requisite for repair. In a society
it is the same. If to some district which elaborates for

290

, THE SOCIAL OEGANIS3T.

tlie community particular commodities — say the woollens
of Yorkshire — there comes an augmented demand j and if,
in fulfilment of 'this demand, a certain expenditure and
wear of the manufacturing organization are incurred ; and
if, in payment for the extra quantity of woollens sent away,
there comes back only such quantity of commodities as
replaces the expenditure, and makes good the waste of life
and machinery ; there can clearly be no growth. That
there may be growth, the commodities obtained in return
must be more than sufficient for these ends; and just in
proportion as the surplus is great wall the growth be rapid.
Whence it is manifest that what in commercial affairs we
call profit, answers to the excess of nutrition over waste
in a living body. Moreover, in both cases when the
functional activity is high and the nutrition defective,
there results not growth but decay. If in an animal,
any organ is worked so hard that the channels which
bring blood cannot furnish enough for repair, the organ
dwindles : atrophy is set up. And if in the body-politic,
some part has been stimulated into great productivity,
and cannot afterwards get paid for all its produce, certain
of its members become bankrupt, and it decreases in size.

One more parallelism to be here noted, is that the
different parts of a social organism, like the different parts
of an individual organism, compete for nutriment; and
severally obtain more or less of it according as they are
discharging more or less duty. If a man’s brain be over-
excited it abstracts blood from his viscera, and stops
digestion; or digestion, actively going on, so affects tlie
circulation through the brain as to cause drowsiness ; or
great muscular exertion determines such a quantity of
blood to the limbs as to arrest digestion or cerebral
action, as the case may be, So, likewise, in a society,
great activity in some one direction causes partial arrests
of activity elsewhere by abstracting capital, that is
commodities : as instance the way in which the

THE SOCIAL ORGANISM.

291

sudden development of our railway-system hampered
commercial operations ; or the way in which the raising
of a large military force temporarily stops the growth of
leading industries.

The last few paragraphs introduce the next division of
our subject. Almost unawares we have come upon the
analogy which exists between the blood of a living body
and the circulating mass of commodities in. the body-politic.
We have now to trace out this analogy from its simplest
to its most complex manifestations.

In the lowest animals there exists no blood properly so
called. Through the small assemblage of cells which make
up a Ifyclra, permeate the juices absorbed from the food.
There is no apparatus for elaborating a concentrated and
purified nutriment, and distributing it among the compo-
nent units; but these component units directly inbibe the
unprepared nutriment, either from the digestive cavity or
from one another. May we not say that this is what takes
place in an aboriginal tribe? All its members severally
obtain for themselves the necessaries of life in their crude
states; and severally prepare them for their own uses as well
as they can. When there arises a decided differentiation
between, the governing and the governed,. some amount of
transfer begins between those inferior individuals who, as
workers, come directly in contact with the products of the
earth, and those superior ones who exercise the higher
functions— -a transfer parallel to that which accompanies
the differentiation of the ectoderm from the endoderm. In
the one case, as in the other, however, it is a transfer of
products that are little if at all prepared ; and takes place
directly from the unit which obtains to the unit which
consumes, without entering into any general current.

Passing to larger organisms— -individual and social- — we
meet the first advance on this arrangement. Where, as
among the compound Thjdrozoa, there is a union of many

292

THE SOCIAL ORGANISE.

such primitive groups as form Hydros ; or where, as in
a, Medusa, one of these groups has become of groat size;
there exist rude channels running throughout the substance
of the body: not, however, channels for the conveyance of
prepared nutriment, but more prolongations of the digestive
cavity, through which the crude chyle-aqueous fluid reaches
the remoter parts, and is moved backwards and forwards
by the creature’s contractions. Do we not find in some of
the more advanced primitive communities an analogous
condition? When the men, partially or fully united into
one society, become numerous — when, as usually happens,
they cover a surface of country not everywhere alike in its
products- — when, more especially, there arise considerable
classes which are not industrial; some process of exchange
and distribution inevitably arises. Traversing here and
there the earth’s surface, covered by that vegetation on.
which human life depends, and in •which, as we say, the
units of a society are imbedded, there are formed indefinite
paths, along which some of the necessaries of life occa-
sionally pass, to be bartered for others which presently
come back along the same channels. Note, however, that
at first little else but crude commodities aro thus trans-
ferred — fruits, fish, pigs or cattle, skins, etc.: there aro
few, if any, manufactured products or articles prepared for
consumption. And note also, that such distribution of
these unprepared .necessaries of life as takes place, is but
occasional— goes on with a certain slow, irregular rhythm.

Further progress in the elaboration and distribution of
nutriment, or of commodities, is a necessary accompani-
ment of further differentiation of functions in the individual
body or in the body-politic. As fast as each organ of a
living animal becomes confined to a special action, it must
become dependent on the rest for those materials which its
position and duty do not permit it to obtain for itself; in
the same way that, as fast as each particular class of a
community becomes exclusively occupied in producing its

293

THE SOCIAL ORGANISM.

own commodity, it must become dependent on the rest for
the other commodities it needs. And, simultaneously - , a
' more perfectly-elaborated blood will result from a highly
specialized group of nutritive organs, severally adapted to
prepare its different elements; in the same way that the
stream of commodities circulating* throughout a society,
will be of superior quality in proportion to the greater
division of labour among the workers. Observe, also, that
in either case the circulating mass of nutritive materials,
besides coming gradually to consist of better ingredients,
also grows more complex. An increase in the number of
the unlike organs which add to the blood their waste
matters, and demand from it the different materials they
severally need, implies a blood more heterogeneous in com-
position — an a priori conclusion which, according to Dr.
Williams, is inductively confirmed by examination of the
blood throughout the various grades of the animal kingdom.
And similarly, it is manifest that as fast as the division of
labour among the classes of a community becomes greater,
there must be an increasing heterogeneity in the currents of
merchandize flowing throughout that community.

The circulating mass of nutritive materials in individual
organisms and in social organisms, becoming at once better
in the quality of its ingredients and more heterogeneous
in composition, as the type of structure becomes higher,
eventually has added to it in both cases another element,
which is not itself nutritive but facilitates the processes of
nutrition. We refer, iu the case of the individual organ-
ism, to the blood-discs; and in the case of the social
organism, to money. This analogy has been observed
by Liebig, who in his Familiar Letters on Chemistry
says : —

“ Silver and gold have ‘to perform in the organism of the state, the
same function as the blood-corpuscles in the human organism. As these
round discs, without themselves taking an immediate share in the nutritive
process, are the medium, the essential condition of the change of matter, of
the production of the heat and of the force by which the temperature o! the

294

THE SOCIAL ORGANISM.

body is kept up, and the motions of the blood and all the juices arc deter-
mined, so has gold become the medium of all activity in the life of the state.”

And 'blood-corpuscles being like coin in their functions,
and in the fact that they are not consumed in nutrition, he
further points out that the number of them which in a
considerable interval flows through the great centres, is
enormous when compared with their absolute number;
just as the quantity of money which annually passes
through the great mercantile centres, is enormous when
compared with the quantity of money in the kingdom.
Hor is this all. Liebig has omitted the significant circum-
stance that only at a certain stage of organization, does
this element of the circulation make its appearance.
Throughout extensive divisions of the lower animals, the
blood contains no corpuscles; and in societies of low
civilization, there is no money.

Thus far we have considered the analogy between the
blood in a living body and the consumable and circulating
commodities in the body -politic. Let us now compare the
appliances by which they are respectively distributed.
"We shall find in the developments of these appliances
parallelisms not less remarkable than those above set forth.
Already we have shown that, as classes, wholesale and
retail distributors discharge in a society the office which
the vascular system discharges in an individual creature ;
that they come into existence later than the other two
great classes, as the tascular layer appears later than the
mucous and serous layers; and that they occupy a like
intermediate position. Here, however, it remains to be.
pointed out that a complete conception of the circulating
system in a society, includes not only the active human
agents who propel the currents of commodities) and regu-
late their distribution, but includes, also, the channels of
communication. It is the formation and arrangement of
these to which we now direct attention.

Going back once more to those lower animals in which
there is found nothing but a partial diffusion/not of blood.

THE SOCIAL ORGANISM.

295

but only of crude nutritive fluids, it is to be remarked tliat
the channels through which the diffusion takes place, are
mere excavations through the h alf-or ganized substance of
the body : they have no lining membranes, but are mere
lacunae traversing a rude tissue. Now countries in which
civilization is but commencing, display a like condition :
there are no roads properly so called ; but the wilderness
of vegetal life covering* the earth's surface is pierced by
tracks, through which the distribution of crude commo-
dities takes place. And while, in both cases, the acts of
distribution occur only at long intervals (the currents,
after a pause, now setting towards a general centre and
now away from it), the transfer is in both cases slow and
difficult. But among other accompaniments of progress)
common to animals and societies, comes the formation
of more definite and complete channels of communication.
Blood-vessels acquire distinct walls; roads are fenced
and gravelled. This advance is first seen in those
roads or vessels that are nearest to the chief centres
of distribution; while the peripheral roads and peripheral
vessels long continue in their primitive states. At a yet
later stage of development, where comparative finish of
structure is found throughout the system as well as near
the chief centres, there remains in both cases the difference
that the main channels are comparatively broad and
straight, while the subordinate ones are narrow and
tortuous in proportion to their remoteness. Lastly, it is
to be remarked that there ultimately arise in the higher
social organisms, as in the higher individual organisms,
main channels of distribution still more- distinguished by
their perfect structures, their comparative straightness,
and the absence of those small branches which the minor
channels perpetually give off. And in railways we also
see; for the first time in the social organism, a system of
double channels conveying currents in opposite directions,
as do the arteries and veins of a well-developed animal.

290

THE^piAji Organism.

These parallelisms in the evolutions and structures of the
circulating systems, introduce us to others in the kinds and
rates of the movements going on through them. Through
the lowest societies, as through the lowest creatures, the
distribution of crude nutriment is by slow gurgitations
and regurgitations. In creatures that '.have rude vascular
systems, just as in societies that are beginning to have
roads, there is no regular circulation along definite courses ;
but, instead, periodical changes of the currents — now
towards this point and now towards that. Through each
part of an inferior mollusk’s body, the blood flows for a
while in one direction, then stops and flows in the opposite
direction ; just as through a rudely-organized society,
the distribution of merchandize is slowly carried on by
great fairs, occurring in different localities, to and from
which the currents periodically set. Only animals of tol-
erably complete organizations, like advanced communities,
pre permeated by constant currents that aro definitely
directed. In living bodies, the local and variable currents
disappear when there grow up great centres of circulation,
generating more powerful currents by a rhythm which
ends in a quick, regular pulsation. And when in social
bodies there arise great centres of commercial activity,
producing and exchanging large quantities of commodities,
the rapid and continuous streams drawn in and emitted by
these centres subdue all minor and local circulations : tlio
slow rhythm of fairs merges into the faster one of weekly
markets, and in the chief centres of distribution, weekly'
markets merge into daily markets ; while in place of the
languid transfer from place to place, taking place at first
weekly, then twice or thrice a week, wo by-and-by gxt
daily transfer, and finally transfer many times a day— -the
original sluggish, irregular rhythm, becomes a rapid,
equable pulse. Mark, too, that in both cases the increased
activity, like the greater perfection of structure, is much loss
conspicuous at the periphery of the vascular system. On

THE SOCIAL OJRGANH3M. 207 .

main lines of railway, we Have, perhaps, a score trains in
eae.li direction daily, going at from thirty to fifty miles an
hour ; as, through the great arteries, the blood moves
rapidly in successive gushes. Along high roads, there go
vehicles conveying men and commodities with much less,
though still considerable, speed, and with a much less
decided rhythm ; as, in the smaller arteries, the speed of the
blood is greatly diminished and the pulse less conspicuous.
In parish-roads, narrower, less complete, and more tortuous,
the rate of movement is further decreased and the rhythm
scarcely traceable ; as in the ultimate arteries. In those
still more imperfect by-roads which lead from these parish-
roads to scattered farmhouses and cottages, the motion is
yet slower and very irregular ; just as we find it in the
capillaries. While along the field-roads, which, in their
unformed, unfenced state, are typical of lacunce, the move-
ment is the slowest, the most irregular, and the most infre-
quent; as it is, not only in the primitive lacunce of animals
and societies, but as it is also in those lacunce in which
the vascular system ends among extensive families of
inferior creatures.

Thus, then, we find between the distributing systems of
living bodies and the distributing systems of bodies-politic,
wonderfully close parallelisms. In the lowest forms of indi-
vidual and social organisms, there exist neither prepared
nutritive matters nor distributing appliances ; and in both,
these, arising as necessary accompaniments of the differen-
tiation of parts, approach perfection as this differentiation
approaches completeness. In animals, as in societies, the
distributing agencies begin to show themselves at the same
relative periods, and in the same relative positions. In the
one, as in the other, the nutritive materials circulated are at
first crude and simple, gradually become better elaborated
and more heterogeneous, and have eventually added to them
a new element facilitating the nutritive processes. The
channels of communication pass through similar phases of

298

THE SOCIAL ORGANISM.

development, which bring them to analogous forms. And
the directions, rhythms, and rates of circulation, progress
by like steps to like final conditions.

We come at length to the nervous system. Having
noticed the primary differentiation of societies into the
governing and governed classes, and observed its analogy
to the differentiation of the two primary tissues which
respectively develop into organs of external action and
organs of alimentation ; having noticed some of the leading
analogies between the development of industrial arrange-
ments and that of the alimentary apparatus ; and having,
above, more fully traced the analogies between the
distributing systems, social and individual; we have now to
compare the appliances by which a society, as a whole, is
regulated, with those by which the movements of an
individual creature are regulated. We shall find her©
parallelisms equally striking with those already detailed.

The class out of which governmental organization origi-
nates, is, as we have said, analogous in its relations to the
ectoderm of the lowest animals and of embryonic forms.
And as this primitive membrane, out of which the
nervo-muscular system is evolved, must, even in the first
stage of its differentiation, he slightly distinguished from
the rest by that greater impressibility and contractility
characterizing the organs to which it gives rise ; so, in that
superior class which is eventually transformed into the
directo-executive system of a. society (its legislative and
defensive appliances), does there exist in the beginning, a
larger endowment of the capacities required for these
higher social functions. Always, in rude assemblages of
men, the strongest, most courageous, and most sagacious,
become rulers and leaders ; and, in a tribe of some standi ng,
this results in the establishment of a dominant class,
characterized on the average by those mental and bodily
qualities which fit them for deliberation and vigorous

THE SOCIAL ORGANISM.

299

combined action. Thus that greater impressibility and;
■contractility, which in the rudest animal types characterize
the units of the ectoderm, characterize also the units of the
primitive social stratum which controls and fights ; since
impressibility and contractility are the respective roots of
intelligence and strength.

Again, in the unmodified ectoderm, as we see it in the
Hydra , the units are all endowed both with impressibility
and contractility; but as we ascend to higher types of
organization, the ectoderm differentiates into classes of units
which divide those two functions between them : some,
becoming exclusively impressible, cease to be contractile ;
while some, becoming exclusively contractile, cease to be
impressible. Similarly with societies. In an aboriginal
tribe, the directive and executive functions are diffused in
a mingled form throughout the whole governing class.
Each minor chief commands those under him, and, if need
be, himself coerces them into obedience. The council of
chiefs itself carries out on the battle-field its own decisions.
The head chief not only makes laws, but administers justice
with his own hands. In larger and more settled communi-
ties, however, the directive and executive agencies begin to
grow distinct from each other. As fast as his duties
accumulate, the head chief or king confines himself more
and more to directing public affairs, and leaves the execution
of his will to others : he deputes others to enforce
submission, to inflict punishments, or to carry out minor
acts of offence and defence; and only on occasions when,
perhaps, the safety of the society and his own supremacy
are at stake, does he begin to act as well as direct. As this
differentiation establishes itself, the characteristics of the
ruler begin to change. No longer, as in an aboriginal tribe,
the strongest and most daring man, the tendency is for him
to become the man of greatest cunning, foresight, and skill
in the management of others ; for in societies that have
advanced beyond the first stage, it is chiefly such qualities

300

THE SOCIAL ORGANISM.

that insure success in gaining 1 supreme power, and holding
it against internal and external enemies. Thus that mem-
ber of the governing class who comes to "bo the chief
directing agent, and so plays the same part that a rudimen-
tary nervous centre does in an unfolding organism, is usually
one endowed with some superiorities of nervous organization.

In those larger and more complex communities possessing,
perhaps, a separate military class, a priesthood, and dis-
persed masses of population requiring local control, there
grow up subordinate governing agents ; who, as their duties
accumulate, severally become more directive and less
executive in their characters. And when, as commonly
happens, the king' begins to collect round himself advisers
who aid him by communicating information, preparing
subjects for his judgment, and issuing his orders ; we may
say that the form of organization is comparable to one very
general among inferior types of animals, in which there
exists a chief ganglion with a few dispersed minor ganglia
under its control.

The analogies between the evolution of governmental
structures in societies, and the evolution of governmental
structures in living bodies, are, however, more strikingly
displayed during the formation of nations by coalescence of
tribes— a process already shown to be, in several respects,
parallel to the development of creatures that primarily
consist of many like segments. Among other points of
community between the successive rings which make up
the body in the lower Annulosa , is the possession of similar
pairs of ganglia. These pairs of ganglia, though connected
by nerves, are very incompletely dependent on any general
controlling power. Hence it results that when the body is
cut in two, the hinder part continues to move forward
under the propulsion of its numerous legs ; and that when
the chain of ganglia has been divided without severing tho
body, the hind limbs may be seen trying to propel the body
in one direction while the fore limbs are trying to propel it

THE SOCIAL ORGANISM.

in another. But in the higher Arinulosa, called Articulatn ,
sundry of the anterior pairs of ganglia, "besides growing
larger, unite in one mass: ; and this great cephalic ganglion
haring become the co-ordinator of all the creature’s move-
ments, there no longer exists much local independence.
Mow may we not in the growth of a consolidated kingdom
out of petty sovereignties or baronies, observe analogous
changes ? Like the chiefs and primitive rulers above
described, feudal lords, exercising supreme power over their
respective groups of retainers, discharge functions analogous
to those of rudimentary nervous centres. Among these
local governing centres there is, in early feudal times, very
little subordination. They are in frequent antagonism;
they are individually restrained chiefly by the influence of
parties in their own class; and they are but irregularly
subject to that most powerful member of tlieir order who
has gained the position of head-suzerain or king. As the
growth and organization of the society progresses, these
local directive centres fall more and more under the control
of a chief directive centre. Closer commercial union
between the several segments is accompanied by closer
governmental union ; and these minor rulers end in being
little more than agents who administer, in their several
localities, the laws made by the supreme ruler : just as the
local ganglia above described, eventually become agents
which enforce, in their respective segments, the orders of
the cephalic ganglion. The parallelism holds still further.;
We remarked above, when speaking of the rise of aboriginal
kings, that in proportion as their territories increase, they
are obliged not only to perform their executive functions
by deputy, but also to gather round themselves advisers to
aid in their directive functions ; and that thus, in place of a
solitary, governing- unit,- there grows up a group of govern-
ing units, comparable to a ganglion consisting of many
cells. Let us here add that the advisers and chief officers
who thus form the rudiment of a ministry, tend from the

THE SOCIAL OEGAHISm*

^ginning to exercise some control over tlie ruler. By the
•omation they give and the opinions they express, they
he ^ 3 * nd £ ment and affect his commands. To this extent
_ e is made a channel through which are communicated the
;: Vhe ?ti0nS 0r ^^ na ^ 11 g with them ; and in course of time,
ea advice of ministers becomes the acknowledged
0 | rCe ^is actions, the king assumes the character
an automatic centre, reflecting the impressions made
°^inn from without.

so ‘ ^° 11C ^is COD1 plication of governmental structure many
ine^f n n0t progress; but in some, a further develop-
dek ] a ~ GS ^ ace ‘ ^ ur own case host illustrates this further
inin^ ^ 3 . lae:D ^ ari< ^ its further analogies. To kings and their
dii^ 155 1168 ^ave been added, in England, other great
CT Cerdres -> exercising a control which, at first small,
great L 011 gradua11 ^ becoming predominant : as with the
^ighesf°T ern ^ n ^ ^ ail gii a which especially distinguish the
will b +? asses living beings. Strange as the assertion
social 0 10Ug ^^ om ‘ Houses of Parliament discharge, in the
com e °° nom ^ functions which are in sundry respects
a vert 1 6 ^ 10se discharged by the cerebral masses in

ganodio n rate an * ma ^* A s it is in the nature of a single
ficu£ r ° n ^ a ® ecte d only by special stimuli from par-
ruler ^ le ’ 80 ^ * s * n Hm n ature of a single

interests 6 SWa f ed * n kis acts by exclusive personal or class
connected ^ is in the nature of a cluster of ganglia,
variety of f V1 ^ 1 primary one, to convey to it a greater
t° make°it lndueaces > Horn more numerous organs, and thus
so it i s j 1 !’, acfcs con form to more numerous requirements ;
surround' nature of the subsidiary controlling powers
pnblie ex pf ° to adapt his rule to a greater number of
and latest^d 11C1GS * J ^ lld as ^ is in the nature of those great
animals & t i eVe ^°P ed ganglia which distinguish the higher
impressio ° lnter P ret and combine the multiplied and varied
and to re<y S ] COllVeye ^ to ^ em irom P arts -°f the system,
■&o ate the actions in such way as duly to regard

THE SOCIAL ORGANISM.

them all ; iso it is in the nature of those great and latest-
developed legislative bodies which distinguish the most
advanced societies, to interpret and combine the wishes of
all classes and localities, and to make laws in harmony with
the general wants. W e may describe the office of the brain
as that of averaging the interests of life, physical, intellect-
ual, moral ; and a good brain is one in which the desires
answering to these respective interests are so balanced, that
the conduct they jointly dictate, sacrifices none of them.
Similarly, we may describe the office of a Parliament as that
of averaging the interests of the various classes in a
community j and a good Parliament is one in which the
parties answering to these respective interests are so
balanced, that their united legislation allows to each class
as much as consists with the claims of the rest. Besides
being comparable in their duties, these great directive
Centres, social and individual, are comparable in the pro-
cesses by which their duties are discharged. The cerebrum
is not occupied with direct impressions from without but
with the ideas of such impressions. Instead of the actual
sensations produced in the body, and directly appreciated
by the sensory ganglia, or primitive nervous centres, the
cerebrum receives only the representations of these sen-
sations; and its consciousness is called representative
consciousness, to distinguish it from the original or
present ative consciousness. Is it not significant that we
have hit on the same word to distinguish the function of our
House of Commons ? We call it a representative body,
because the interests with which it deals are not directly
presented to it, but represented to it by its various members;
and a debate is a conflict of representations of the results
likely to follow from a proposed course— a description which
applies with equal truth to a debate in the individual
consciousness. In both cases, too, these great governing
masses take no part in the executive functions. As, after
a conflict in the cerebrum, those desires which finally pro-

304 THE SOCIAL ORGANISM.

dominate act on the subjacent ganglia, and through their
instrumentality determine the. bodily actions j so the parties
■which, after a parliamentary struggle, gain the victory, do
not themselves carry out their wishes, but get them carried
out by the executive divisions of the Government. The
fulfilment of all legislative decisions still devolves on the
original directive centres : the impulse passing from the
Parliament to the Ministers and from the Ministers to the
King, in whose name everything is done; just as those
smaller, first-developed ganglia, which in the lowest
vertebrate are the chief controlling agents, are still, in the
brains of the higher vertebrata, the agents through which
the dictates of the cerebrum are worked out. Moreover, in
both cases these original centres become increasingly auto-
matic. In the developed vertebrate animal, they have little
function beyond that of conveying impressions to, and
executing the determinations of, the larger centres. In our
highly organized government, the monarch has long been
lapsing into a passive agent of Parliament ; and now,
ministries are rapidly falling into the same position. Hay;
between the two cases there is a parallelism even in respect
of the exceptions to this automatic action. For in the
individual creature it happens that under circumstances of
sudden alarm, as from a loud sound close at hand, an
unexpected object starting up in front, or a slip from
insecure footing, the danger is guarded against by some
quick involuntary jump, or adjustment of the limbs, which
occurs before there is time to consider the impending evil
and take deliberate measures to avoid it : the rationale of
which is that these violent impressions produced on the
senses, are reflected from the sensory ganglia to the spinal
cord and muscles, without, as in ordinary cases, first passing
through the cerebrum. In like manner on national
emergencies calling for prompt action, the King and Min-
istry, not having time to lay the matter before the great
deliberative bodies, themselves issue commands for the

THE SOCIAL ORGANISM,

305

requisite movements or precautions : the primitive, and now
almost automatic, directive centres, resume for a moment
■.their original uncontrolled power. And then, strangest of
all, observe that in either case there is an after-process of
approval or disapproval. The individual on recovering from
his automatic start, at once contemplates the cause of his
fright j and, according to the case, concludes that it was
well he moved as he did, or condemns himself for his
groundless al arm. In like manner, the deliberative powers
of the State discuss, as soon as may be, the unauthorized
acts of the executive powers ; and, deciding that the
reasons were or were not sufficient, grant or withhold a
bill of indemnity.*

Thus far in comparing the governmental organization of
the body-politic with that of an individual body, we have
considered only the respective co-ordinating centres. We
have yet to consider the channels through which these
ed-ordinafcmg centres receive information and convey com-
mands. In the simplest societies, as in the simplest
organisms, there is no “mterauncial apparatus, w as Hunter
styled the nervous system. Consequently, impressions can
be but slowly propagated from unit to unit throughout the
whole mass. The same progress, however, which, in
animal-organization, shows itself in the establishment of
ganglia or directive centres, shows itself also in the
establishment of nerve-threads, through which the ganglia
receive and convey impressions and so control remote

* It may be well to warn the reader against an error fallen into by one who
criticised this essay on its first publication — the error of supposing'.' that' the
analogy here intended to be drawn, is a specific analogy between the
organization of society in England, and the human organization. As said
at the outset, no such specific analogy exists. The above parallel is one
between the most-developed systems of governmental organization, individual
and social; and the vertebrate type is instanced merely as exhibiting this
most-developed system. If any specific comparison were made, which
it cannot rationally be, it would be made with some much lower vertebrate
form than the human.

806

THE SOCIAL OKGANISM.

organs. And in -societies 'the like eventually takes place.
After a long period during which the directive centres
communicate with various parts of the society through other
means, there at last comes into existence an “ interntmcial
apparatus/ 5 analogous to that found in individual bodies.
The comparison of telegraph-wires to nerves is familiar to
all. It applies, however, to an extent not commonly
supposed. Thus, throughout the vertebrate sub-kingdom,
the great nerve-bundles diverge from the vertebrate axis
side by side with the great arteries; and similarly, our
groups of telegraph-wires are carried along the sides of our
railways. The most striking parallelism, however, remains.
Into each great bundle of nerves, as it leaves the axis of
the body along with an artery, there enters a branch of the
sympathetic nerve ; which branch, accompanying the artery
throughout its ramifications, has the function of regulating
its diameter and otherwise controlling the flow of blood
through it according to local requirements. Analogously,
in the group of telegraph-wires running alongside each
railway, there is a wire for the purpose of regulating the
traffic — for retarding or expediting the flow of passengers
and commodities, as the local conditions demand. Prob-
ably, when our now rudimentary telegraph-system is fully
developed, other analogies will be traceable.

Such, then, is a general outline of the evidence which
justifies the comparison of societies to living organisms.
That they gradually increase in mass ; that they become
little by little more complex ; that at the same time their
parts grow more mutually dependent; and that they con-
tinue to live and grow as wholes, while successive generations
of their units appear and disappear; are broad peculiarities
which bodies-poiitic display in common with all living
bodies; and in whichthey and living bodies differ from
everything else. And on carrying out the comparison in
detail, we find that these major analogies involve many
jpiaqp analogies, far closer than might have been expected.

THIS social organism:.

807

Others mi glit be added. W e bad hoped to say something-
respecting the different types of social organization, and
something also on social metamorphoses; but we have
reached our assigned limits.

THE ORIGIN OF ANIMAL WORSHIP.

[First published in The Fortnightly Review for May, 1870.]

Mr. McLennan’s recent essays on the Worship of Animals
and Plants have done much to elucidate a very obscure
subject. By pursuing in this case, as before in another case,
the truly scientific method of comparing the phenomena
presented by existing uncivilized races with those which
the traditions of civilized races present, he has rendered
both of them more comprehensible than they were before.

It seems to me, however, that Mr. McLennan gives but
an indefinite answer to the essential question — How did the
worship of animals and plants arise ? Indeed, in his con-
cluding paper, he expressly leaves this problem unsolved ;
saying that his “is not an hypothesis explanatory of the
origin of Totemism, be it remembered, but an hypothesis
explanatory of the animal and plant worship of the ancient
nations.” So that we have still to ash — Why have savage
tribes so generally taken animals and plants and other
things as totems ? What can have induced this tribe to
ascribe special sacredness to one creature, aud that tribe to
another ? And if to these questions the reply is, that each
tribe considers itself to be descended from the object of its
reverence, then there presses for answer the further question
— How came so strange a notion into existence ? If this

THE ORIGIN OE ANIMAL-WORSHIP. 300

notion occurred in one case only, -we might set it down to
some wliini of tliongtit or some illusive occurrence. But
appearing, as it does, with multitudinous variations among
so many uncivilized races in different parts of the world,
and having left numerous marks in the superstitions of
extinct civilized races, we cannot assume any special or
exceptional cause. Moreover, the general cause, whatever
it may be, must be such as does not negative an aboriginal
intelligence like in nature to our own. After studying the
grotesque beliefs of savages, we are apt to suppose that
their reason is not as our reason. Bub this supposition is
inadmissible. Given the amount of knowledge which primi-
tive men possess, and given the imperfect verbal symbols
used by them in speech and thought, and the conclusions
they habitually reach will be those that are relatively the
mbst rational. This must be our postulate; and, setting
out with this postulate, we have to ask how primitive tnen
came so generally, if not universally, to believe themselves
the progeny of animals or plants or inanimate bodies. There
is, I believe, a satisfactory answer.

The .proposition with which Mr. McLennan sets out, that
totem-worship preceded the worship of anthropomorphic
gods, is one to which I can yield but a qualified assent. It
is true in a sense, but not wholly true. If the words " gods **
and “ worship :i carry with them their ordinary definite
meanings, the statement is true; but if their meanings are
widened so as to comprehend those earliest vague notions out
of which the definite ideas of gods and worship are evolved,
I think it is not true. The rudimentary form of all religion
is the propitiation of dead ancestors, who are supposed to
bo still existing, and to be capable of working good or evil
to their descendants. As a preparation for dealing hereafter
with the principles of sociology, I have, for some years past,
directed much attention to the modes of thought current in
the simpler human societies ; and evidence of many kinds,

8.10

THE ORIGIN OF ANIMAL-WORSHIP.

furnished by all varieties of uncivilised men., lias forced on
me a conclusion harmonizing with that lately expressed in
this Review by Prof. Huxley — namely, that the savage, com
ceiving a corpse to be deserted by the active personality
who dwelt in it, conceives this active personality to be still
existing, and that bis feelings and ideas concerning it form
the basis of his superstitions. Everywhere we find expressed
or implied the belief that each person is double ; arid that
when he dies, his other self, whether remaining near at hand
or gone far away, may return, and continues capable of
injuring his enemies and aiding Ms friends.*

But how out of the desire to propitiate this second por-

* A critical reader may raise an objection. If animal-worship is to be
rationally interpreted, how can the interpretation set out by assuming a belief
in the spirits of dead ancestors — a belief which just as much requires explanaj-
tion ? Doubtless there is here a wide gap in the argument. I hope eventually
to fill it up. Here, out of many experiences which conspire to generate this
belief, I can but briefly indicate the leading ones : 1. It is not impossible that
his shadow, following him everywhere, and moving as he moves, may have
some small share in giving to the savage a vague idea of his duality. It
needs but to watch a child’s interest in the movements of its shadow, and to
remember that at first a shadow cannot be interpreted as a negation of light,
but is looked upon as an entity, to perceive that the savage may very possibly
consider it as a specific something which forms part of him. 2. A much more
decided suggestion of the same kind is likely to result from the reflection of
his face and figure in water: imitating him as it does in his form, colours, mo-
tions, grimaces. When we remember that not unfrequently a savage objects
to have his portrait taken, because he thinks whoever carries away a repre-
sentation of him carries away some part of his being, we see how probable
it is that he thinks his double; in the water is a reality in some way belonging
to him. 3. Echoes must greatly tend to confirm the idea of duality otherwise
arrived at. Incapable as he is of understanding their natural origin, the
primitive man necessarily ascribes them to living beings— beings who mock
him and elude his search. 4. ; The suggestions resulting from these and other
physical phenomena are, however, secondary in. importance. The root of this
belief in another self lies in the experience of dreams. The distinction so
easily made by us between our life in dreams and our real life, is one which
the savage recognizes in but a vague way ; and he cannot express even that
distinction which lie perceives. When lie awakes, and to those who have seen
him lying quietly asleep, describes where he has been, and what he has done,
his rude language fails to state the difference between seeing and dreaming
that he saw, doing and dreaming that he did. From this inadequacy : of hiss

THE ORIGIN OP ANIMAL-WORSHIP.

811

sonality of a deceased man (fclie words “ gliosfc ” and <( spirit ”
are somewhat misleading, since the savage believes that the
second personality reappears in a form equally tangible
with the first), does there grow up the worship of animals,
plants, and inanimate objects- ? Yery simply. Savages
habitually distinguish individuals by names that are either
directly suggestive of some personal trait or fact of personal

language it not only results that he cannot truly represent this difference to
others, but also that he cannot truly represent it to himself. Hence, in the
absence of an alternative interpretation, his belief, and that of those to whom
he tells Ms adventures, is that his other self has been away, and came back
•when he awoke. And this belief, which wefind among various existing savage
tribes, we equally find in the traditions of the early civilized races.; 5. The
conception of another self capable of going away and returning, receives
what to the savage must seem conclusive verifications from the abnormal
suspensions of consciousness, and derangements of consciousness, that
occasionally occur in members of his tribe. One who has fainted, and cannot
be immediately brought back to himself (note the significance of our awn
phrases “returning to himself,” etc.) as a sleeper can, shows him a state in
which the other self has been away for a time beyond recall. Still more is
this prolonged absence of the other self shown him in cases of apoplexy, oata-
lepsy, and other forms of suspended animation. Here for hours the other
self persists in remaining away, and on returning refuses to say where he has
been. Further verification is afforded by every epileptic subject, into whose
body, during the absence of the other self, some enemy has entered; for how
else does it happen that the other self, on returning, denies all knowledge of
what his body has been doing ? And this supposition that the body has been
“ possessed ” by some other being, is confirmed by the phenomena of som-
nambulism and insanity. 0. What, then, is the interpretation inevitably put
upon death ? The other self has habitually returned after sleep, which simu-
lates death, It has returned, too, after fainting, which simulates death much
more. It has even returned after the rigid state of catalepsy, which simulates
death very greatly. Will it not return also after this still more prolonged
quiescence and rigidity ? Clearly it is quite possible — quite probable even.
The dead man’s other self is gone away for a long time, but it still exists
somewhere, far or near, and may at any moment come back to do all he said
he would do. Hence the various burial-rites— the placing of weapons and
valuables along with the body, the daily bringing of food to it, etc. I hope
hereafter to show that, with such knowledge of the facts as he has, this
interpretation is the most reasonable the savage can arrive at. Let me here,
however, by way of showing how clearly the facts bear out this view, give one
illustration out of many. “ The ceremonies with which they [the Yeddahs]
invoke them [the shades of the dead] are few as they are simple. The most

312

THE ORIGIN OF ANIMAE- WORSHIP.

History, or else express . ail observed community of character
with some well-known object. Such a genesis of indi-
vidual names, before surnames have arisen, is inevitable j
and how easily it arises we shall see on. remembering that
it still goes on in its original form, even when no longer
needful. I do not refer only to the significant fact that in
some parts of England, as in the nail-making districts, nick-
names are general, and surnames little recognized ; but I
refer to a common usage among both children and adults.
The rude man is apt to be known as “a bear;” a sly
fellow, as “an old fox a hypocrite, as “the crocodile.”
Names of plants, too, are used; as when the red-haired boy
is called “carrots” by his school-fellows. Nor do we lack
nicknames derived from inorganic objects and agents :
instance that given by Mr. Carlyle to the elder Sterling —
“ Captain Whirlwind.” Now, in the earliest savage State,
this metaphorical naming will in most cases commence
afresh in each generation — must do so, indeed, until sur-
names of some kind have been established. I say in most
cases, because there will occur exceptions in the eases
of men who have distinguished themselves. If “ the Wolf,”

common is the following. An arrow is fixed upright in the ground, and the
Veddah dances slowly round it, chanting this invocation, which is almost
musical in its rhythm :

“MS, miya, rn& miy, m& deyd,

'JL'opang koyihetti mittigan yand&h ?”

“ My departed one, my departed one, my Clod!

Where art thou wandering ? ”

“ This invocation appears to he used on all occasions when the intervention
of the guardian spirits is required, in sickness, preparatory to hunting, etc.
Sometimes, in the latter case, a portion of the flesh of the game is promised as
a votive offering, in the event of the chase being successful; and they believe
that the spirits will appear to them in dreams and tell them where to hunt.
Sometimes they cook food and place it in the dry bed of a river, or some other
secluded spot, and then call on their deceased ancestors hy name. ‘Come and
partake of this 1 Give us maintenance as you did when living ! Come, where-
soever you may be; on a tree, on a rock, in the forest, come !* And they
dance round the food, half chanting, half shouting, the invocation. ’’—Bailey,
in Transactions 0 / the Ethnological Society, London, N. S.» «.» p. 301-2.

THE ORIGIN OS' ANIMAL- WORSHIP. 813

proving famous in fight, becomes a' terror to neighbouring
tribes, and a dominant man in bis own, bis sons, proud
of their parentage, will not let fall tbe fact tliat they
descended from “tbe Wolf nor will this fact be forgotten
by tbe rest of tbe tribe who bold “tbe Wolf” in awe, and
see reason to dread bis sons. In proportion to the power
and celebrity of “ tbe Wolf/ 5 will this pride and this fear
conspire to maintain among bis grandchildren and great-
grandchildren, as well as among those over whom they
dominate, the remembrance of the fact that their ancestor
was “the Wolf And if, as will occasionally happen, this
dominant family becomes the root of a new tribe, the
members of this tribe will become known to themselves and
others as “ the Wolves

We need not rest satisfied with the inference that this
inheritance of nicknames will take place. There is proof
that it does take place. As nicknaming after animals/
plants, and other objects, still goes on among ourselves, so
among ourselves does there go on the descent of nicknames.
An instance has come nnder my own notice on an estate
in the West Highlands, belonging to some friends with
whom I frequently have the pleasure of spending a. few
weeks in the autumn. “ Take a young Croshek,” has more
than once been the reply of my host to the inquiry, who
should go with me, when I was setting out salmon-fishing.
The elder Croshek I knew well j and supposed that this
name, borne by him and- by all belonging to him, was the
family surname. Years passed before I learned that the
real surname was Cameron ; that the father was called
Croshek, after the name of his cottage, to distinguish him
from other Camerons employed about the premises ; and
that his children had come to be similarly distinguished.
Though here, as very generally in Scotland, tbe nickname
was derived from the place of residence, yet bad it been
derived from an animal, the process would have been the
same ; inheritance of it would have occurred just as

314

THE ORIGIN Off ANIMAL-WORSHIP.

naturally. Not even for this small link in the argument,
however, need we depend on inference. There is fact to
bear us out. Mr. Bates, in his Naturalist on the River
Amazons (2d ed., p/376), describing three half-castes who
accompanied him on a hunting trip, says— “ Two of them
were brothers, namely, Joao (John) and Zephyrino Jabutl;
Jabuti, or tortoise, being' a nickname which their father had
earned for his slow gait, and which, as is usual in this
country, had descended as the surname of the family.” Let
me add the statement made by Mr. Wallace respecting this
same region, that “ one of the tribes on the river Isanna
is called ‘Jurupari’ (Devils). Another is called ‘Ducks;’
a third, ‘Stars;’ a fourth, ‘Mandiocca.’” ' Putting these
two statements together, can there be any doubt about the
genesis of these tribal names? Let “the Tortoise” become
sufficiently distinguished (not necessarily by superiority —
great inferiority may occasionally suffice) and the tradition
of descent from him, preserved by his descendants them-
selves if he was superior, and by their contemptuous neigh-
bours if he was inferior, may become a tribal name.*

“But this,” it will be said, “does not amount to an
explanation of animal-worship.”- True : a third factor
remains to be specified. Given a belief in the still-existing
other self of the deceased ancestor, who must be propitiated;
given this survival of his metaphorical name among his
grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc.; and the further

* Since the foregoing pages were written, my attention has been drawn by
Sir John Lubbock to a passage in the appendix to the second edition of Pre-
historic Times, in which he has indicated this derivation of tribal names.
He says: “ In endeavouring to account for the worship of animals, we must
remember that names are very frequently taken from them. The children
and followers of a man called the Bear or the Lion would make that a tribal
name. Hence the animal itself would be first respected, at last worshipped. ’ ’
Of the genesis of this worship, however, Sir John Lubbock does not give any
specific explanation. Apparently he inclines to the belief , tacitly adopted also
by Mr. McLennan, that animal- Worship is derived from an original letichism,
of which it is a more developed form. As will shortly be seen, I take a
different view of its origin.

THE ORIGIN OP ANIMAL-WORSHIP.

815

requisite is that the distinction between metaphor and
reality shall be forgotten. Let tradition fail to keep clearly
in view the fact that the ancestor was a man called “ the
Wolf ” — -let him be habitually spoken of as “ the Wolf ”, just
as when alive ; and the natural mistake of taking the name
literally will bring with it, firstly, a belief in descent from
an actual wolf, and, secondly, a treatment of the wolf in a.
manner likely to propitiate him— a manner appropriate to
one who may be the other self of the dead ancestor, or one
of the kindred, and therefore a friend.

That a misunderstanding of this kind is likely to grow
up, becomes obvious when we bear in mind the great in-
definiteness of primitive language. As Prof. Max Muller
says, respecting certain misinterpretations of an opposite
kind: “These metaphors . . . . would become mere names
handed down in the conversation of a family, understood
perhaps by the grandfather, familiar to the father, but
strange to the son, and misunderstood by the grandson/’
We have ample reason, then, for supposing such misinter-
pretations. Nay, we may go further. We are justified in
saying that they are certain to occur. For undeveloped
languages contain no words capable of indicating the
distinction to be kept in view. In the tongues of existing
inferior races, only concrete objects and acts are expressible.
The Australians have a name for each kind of tree, but no
name for tree irrespective of kind. And though some
Witnesses allege that their vocabulary is not absolutely
destitute of generic names, its extreme poverty in such is
unquestionable. Similarly with the Tasmanians. Dr. Milli-
gan says they "had acquired very limited powers of
abstraction or generalization. They possessed no words
representing abstract ideas; for each variety of gum-tree
and wattle-tree, etc., etc., they had a name, but they had no
equivalent for the expression, ‘ a tree ; 1 neither qoukl they
express abstract qualities, such as hard, soft, warm, cold,
long, short, round, etc.; for f hard/ they would say * like a

316 TITS OPJSIN OF ANIMAL - WO KS 1X1 P,

stone ; 5 for f tall/ they would say ' long legs/ etc. ; and for
1 round/ they said f like a ball/ ‘ like the moon/ and so on,
usually suiting the action to the word, and confirming, by
some sign, the meaning to bo understood.”* Now, even
making allowance for over-statement here (which, seems
needful, since the word “long,” said to be inexpressible in
the abstract, subsequently occurs as qualifying a concrete
in the expression, “long legs”), it is manifest that so
imperfect a language must fail to convey the idea of a
name, as something separate from a thing; and that still
loss can it be capable of indicating the act of naming.
Familiar use of such partially- abstract words as are appli-
cable to all objects of a class, is needful before there can be
reached the conception of a name- — a word symbolizing the
symbolic character of other words; and the conception of a
name, with its answering abstract term, must be long current
before the verb to name can arise. Hence, men with
speech so rude, cannot transmit the tradition of an
ancestor named “the Wolf ”, as distinguished from the actual
wolf. The children and grandchildren who saw him will
not be led into error ; but in later generations, descent from
“ the Wolf ” will inevitably come to mean descent from the
animal known by that name. And the ideas and senti-
ments which, as above shown, naturally grow up round the
belief that the dead parents and grandparents are still alive,
and ready, if propitiated, to befriend their descendants, will
be extended to the wolf species.

Before passing to other developments of this general
view, let me point out how not simply animal-worsliip is
thus accounted for, but also the conception, so variously
illustrated in ancient legends, that animals are capable of
displaying human powers of speech and thought and action.
Mythologies are full of stories of beasts and birds and
fishes that have played intelligent parts ia human affairs — <

* Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania , iii., p. 280-81. ;

THE ORIGIN OS' ANIMAL-WORSHIP.

817

creatures that have befriended particular persons by giving'
them information, by guiding them, by yielding them help;
or else that have deceived them, verbally or otherwise.
Evidently all these traditions, as well as those about abduc-
tions of women by animals and fostering of children by them,
fall naturally into their places as results of the habitual
misinterpretation 1 have described.

The probability of the hypothesis will appear still
greater when we observe how readily it applies to the
worship of other orders of objects. Belief in actual
descent from an animal, strange as we may think it, is one
by no means incongruous with the unanalyzed experiences
of the savage | for there come under his notice many meta-
morphoses, vegetal and animal, which are apparently of
like character. But how could he possibly arrive at so
grotesque a conception as that the progenitor of his tribe
was the sun, or the moon, or a particular star? No
observation of surrounding phenomena affords the slightest
suggestion of any such possibility. But by the inheritance
of nicknames that are eventually mistaken for the names
of the objects from which they were derived, the belief
readily arises — is sure to arise. That the names of
heavenly bodies will furnish metaphorical names to the
uncivilized, is manifest. Do we not ourselves call a dis-
tinguished singer or actor a star? And have we not in
poems numerous comparisons of men and women to the
sun and moon; as in Love's Labour's Lost, where the
princess is called. ' “ a gracious moon,” and as in Henry
TO., where we read— a Those suns of glory, those two
lights of men ? " Clearly, primitive peoples will be not
unlikely thus to speak of the chief hero of a successful
battle. ’When we remember how the arrival of a trium-
phant warrior must affect the feelings of his tribe, dissi-
pating clouds of anxiety and brightening all faces with
joy, we shall see that the comparison of him to the sun is

31 $ THE ORIGIN OP ANIMAL-WORSHIP,

quite natural ; and in early speech this comparison can be
made only by calling him the sun. As before, then, it will
happen that, through a confounding of the metaphorical
name with the actual name, his progeny, after a few
generations, will be regarded by themselves and others as
descendants of the sun. And, as a consequence, partly of
actual inheritance of the ancestral character, and partly of
maintenance of the traditions respecting the ancestor’s
achievements, it will also naturally happen that the solar
race will be considered a superior race, as we find it
habitually is.

The origin of other totems, equally strange, if not even
stranger, is similarly accounted for, though otherwise un-
accountable. One of the New-Zealand chiefs claimed as his
progenitor the neighbouring great mountain, Tongariro.
This seemingly- whimsical belief becomes intelligible when
we observe how easily it may have arisen from a nickname.
Bo we not ourselves sometimes speak figuratively of a tall,
fat man as a mountain of flesh? And, among a people
prone to speak in still more concrete terms, would it not
happen that a chief, remarkable for his great bulk, would
be nicknamed after the highest mountain within sight,
because he towered above other men as this did above sur-
rounding hills? Such an occurrence is not simply possible,
but probable. And, if so, the confusion of metaphor with
fact would originate this surprising genealogy. A notion
perhaps yet more grotesque, thus receives a satisfactory
interpretation. What could have put it into the imagina-
tion of any one that he was descended from the dawn ?
Given the extremes!; credulity, joined with the wildest
fancy, it would still seem requisite that the ancestor should
be conceived as an entity,* and the dawn is entirely with-
out that definiteness and comparative constancy which
enter into the conception of an entity. But when we
remember that tc the Dawn 3} is a natural complimentary
name for a beautiful girl opening into womanhood, the

THE ORIGIN -OF ANIMAL- WORSHIP,

310

genesis of the idea becomes, on the above hypothesis,
quite obvious.*

Another indirect verification is that we thus get a clear
conception of Feticlxism in general. Under the fetichlstic
mode of thought, surrounding objects and agents are
regarded as having* powers more or less definitely personal
in their natures j and the current interpretation is, that
human intelligence, in its early stages, is obliged to con-
ceive of their powers under this . form. I have myself
hitherto accepted this interpretation ; though always with
a sens© of dissatisfaction. This dissatisfaction was, I
think, well grounded. The theory is scarcely a theory
properly so-called ; but rather, a restatement in other
words. Uncivilized men do habitually form anthropo-
morphic conceptions of surrounding things ; and this
observed general fact is transformed into the theory that
at first they must so conceive them — a theory for which
the psychological justification attempted, seems to me
inadequate. From our present stand-point, it becomes
manifest that Fetichism is not primary but secondary.
What has been said above almost of itself shows this.
Let ns, however, follow out the steps of its genesis. Re-
specting the Tasmanians, Dr. Milligan says: — J< The
names of men and women were taken from natural objects
and occurrences around, as, for instance, a kangaroo, a gum
tree, snow, hail, thunder, the wind,” flowers in blossom,
etc. Surrounding objects, then, giving* origin to names
of persons, and being, in the way shown, eventually mis-
taken for the actual progenitors ' of ' those who descend
from persons nicknamed after them, it results that these
surrounding objects come to be regarded as in some
manner possessed of personalities like the human. He

* T have since found, however, that the name Dawn, which occurs in
various places, seems more frequently a birth-name, given because the birth
took place at dawn.

320

THE ORIGIN '01 ANIMAL-WORSHIP.

whose family tradition is that his ancestor was “the
Crab,” Will conceive the crab as having a disguised inner
power like his own ; an alleged descent from “ the Palm-
tree” will entail belief in some kind of consciousness
dwelling in the palm-tree. Hence, in proportion as the
animals, plants, and inanimate objects or agents that
originate names of persons, become numerous (which they
will do in proportion as a tribe becomes large and the
number of persons to be distinguished from one another
increases), multitudinous things around will acquire ima-
ginary personalities. And so it will happen that, as Mr.
McLennan says of the Feejeeans, “ Vegetables and stones,
nay, even tools and weapons, pots and canoes, have sonls
that are immortal, and that, like the souls of men, pass on
at last to Mbulu, the abode of departed spirits.” Betting
out, then, with a belief in the still-living other self of the
dead ancestor, the alleged general cause of misapprehen-
sion affords us an intelligible origin of the fetichistic con-
ception ; and we are enabled to see how it tends to become
a general, if not a universal, conception.

Other apparently inexplicable phenomena are at the
same time divested of their strangeness. I refer to the
beliefs in, and worship of, compound monsters— impossible
hybrid animals, and forms that are half human, half brutal.
The theory of a primordial Fetichism, supposing it other-
wise adequate, yields no feasible solutions of these. Grant
the alleged original tendency to think of all natural
agencies as in some way personal. Grant, too, that hence
may arise a worship of animals, plants, and even inanimate
bodies. Still the obvious implication is that the worship
so derived will be limited to things that are, or have been,
perceived. Why should this mode of thought lead the
savage to imagine a combination of bird and mammal;
and not only to imagine it, but to worship it as a god ? If
even we admit that some illusion may have suggested the

THE ORIGIN OF ANIMAL- WORSHIP.

321

belief in n creature lialf man, half fish, wo cannot thus
explain tlie prevalence among Eastern races of idols
representing bird-headed men, and men having thoir legs
replaced by the leg’s of a cock, and men with the
heads of elephants.

Carrying with us the inferences above drawn, however,
it is a corollary that ideas and practices of these kinds will
arise. When tradition preserves both lines of ancestry—
when a chief, nicknamed “ the Wolf ”, carries away from an
adjacent tribe a wife who is remembered either under the
animal name of -her tribe, or as a woman; it will happen
that if a son distinguishes himself, the remembrance of
him among his descendants will be that he was born of a
wolf and some other animal, or of a wolf and a woman.
Misinterpretation, arising in the way described from de-
fects of language, will entail belief in a creature uniting
the attributes of the two ; and if the tribe grows into a
society, representations of such a creature will become
objects of worship. One of the cases cited by Mr.
McLennan may here be repeated in illustration. “ The
story of the origin of the Dikokamexmi Kirgheez,” they
say, e{ from a red greyhound and a certain queen and her
forty handmaidens, is of ancient date.” Now, if f * the
red greyhound ” was the nickname of a man extremely
swift of foot (celebrated runners have been nicknamed
t( greyhound ” among ourselves), a story of this kind would
naturally arise; and if the metaphorical name was mis-
taken for the actual name, there might result, as the idol
of the race, a compound form appropriate to the story.
We need not be surprised, then, at finding among the
Egyptians the goddess Pasht represented as a woman with
a Holds head, and the god Har-hat as a man with the head
of a hawk. The Babylonian gods— one having the form
of a man with an eagle’s tail, and another uniting a human
bust to a fish’s body — no longer appear such unaccountable
conceptions. We get feasible explanations, too, of sculp-

322

THE ORIGIN OF ANIMAL- WORSHIP.

tares representing sphinxes, winged Human-headed bulls,
etc . ; as well as of the stories about centaurs, satyrs,
and the rest.

Ancient myths in general thus acquire meanings consider-
ably different from those ascribed to them by comparative
mythologists. Though these last may ho in part correct,
yet if the foregoing argument is valid, they can. scarcely he
correct in their main outlines. Indeed, if we read the facts
the other way upward, regarding as secondary or additional,
the elements that are said to be primary, while we regard
as primary, certain elements which are considered as accre-
tions of later times, we shall, I think, be nearer the truth.

The current theory of the myth is that it has grown out
of the habit of symbolizing natural agents and processes, in
terms of human personalities and actions. Now, it may
in the first place be remarked that, though symbolization of
this kind is common among civilized races, it is not common
among races that are the most uncivilized. By existing
savages, surrounding objects, motions, and changes, are
habitually used to convey ideas respecting human transac-
tions. It needs but to read the speech of au Indian chief
to see that just as primitive men name one another meta-
phorically after surrounding objects, so do they metaphori-
cally describe one another's doings as though, they were the
doings of natural objects. But assuming a contrary habit
of thought to be the dominant one, ancient myths are
explained as results of the primitive tendency to symbolize
inanimate things and their changes, by human beings and
their doings.

A kindred difficulty must he added. The change of verbal
meaning from which the myth is said to arise, is a change
Apposite in kind to that which prevails in the earlier stages
of linguistic development. It implies a derivation of the
concrete from the abstract j whereas at first abstracts are
derived only from concretes: the concrete of abstracts

, THE ORIGIN Of ANIMAL-WORSHIP,

823

being a subsequent process. In the words of Prof. Max
Muller, there are “ dialects spoken at the present day which
have no abstract nouns, and the more we go back in. tlio
history of languages, the smaller we find the number of these
useful expressions'” {Chips, vol. ii., p. 54) ; or, as lie says
more recently — - <e Ancient words and ancient thoughts, for
both go together, have not yet arrived at that stage of
abstraction in which, for instance, active powers, whether
natural or supernatural, can be represented in any but a
personal and more or less human form.” [Fraser's Maga-
zine, April, 1870.) Here the concrete is represented as'
original, and' the abstract as derivative. Immediately after-
ward, however, Prof. Max Muller, having given as examples
of abstract nouns , (c day and night, spring and winter, dawn
and twilight, storm and thunder,” goes on to argue that,
s( as long as people thought in language, it was simply im-
possible to speak of morning or evening, of spring and
winter, without giving to these conceptions something of an
individual, active, sexual, and at last, personal character.”
{Chips, vol. ii., p. 55.) Here the concrete is derived from
the abstract— -the personal conception is represented as
coming after the impersonal conception; and through
such transformation of the impersonal into the personal,
Prof. Max Muller considers ancient myths to have arisen.
How are these propositions reconcilable ? One of two
things must he said : — If originally there were none of
these abstract nouns, then the earliest statements respecting
the daily course of Nature were made in concrete terms —
the personal elements of the myth were the primitive ele-
ments, and the impersonal expressions which are their
equivalents came later. If this is not admitted, then it
must be held that, until after there arose these abstract
nouns, there were no current statements at all respecting
these most conspicuous objects and changes which the
heavens and the earth present ; and that the abstract nouns
having been somehow formed, and rightly formed, and used

324 THE ORIGIN OF ANIMAL- WORSHIP. „

without personal meanings, afterward became personalized
— a process the reverse of that which characterizes early
linguistic progress.

No such contradictions occur if we interpret myths after
the manner that has been indicated. Nay, besides escaping
contradictions, we meet with unexpected solutions. The
moment we try it, the key unlocks for us with ease what
seems a quite inexplicable fact, which the current hypo-
thesis takes as one of its postulates. Speaking of such
words as sky and earth, dew and rain, rivers and mountains,
as well as of the abstract nouns above named, Prof. Max
Muller says— •“ Now in ancient languages every one of these
words had necessarily a termination expressive of gender,
and this naturally produced in the mind the corresponding
idea of sex, so that these names received not only an indi-
vidual, but a sexual character. There was no substan-
tive which was not either masculine or feminine ; neuters
being of later growth, and distinguishable chiefly in the
nominative.” ( Chips , vol. ii., p. 55.) And this alleged
necessity for a masculine or feminine implication is assigned
as a part of the reason why these abstract nouns and collec-
tive nouns became personalized. But should not a true
theory of these first steps in the evolution of thought and
language show us how it happened that men acquired the
seemingly-strange habit of so framing their words for sky,
earth, dew, rain, etc., as to make them indicative of sex ?
Or, at any rate, must it not be admitted that an interpreta-
tion which, instead of assuming this habit to be tf necessary,”
shows us how it results, thereby acquires an additional claim
to acceptance ? The interpretation I have indicated does
this. If men and women are habitually nicknamed, and if
defects of language lead their descendants to regard them-
selves as descendants of the things from which the names
were taken, then masculine or feminine genders will be
ascribed to these things according as the ancestors named
after them were men or women. If a beautiful maiden

THE ORIGIN OP ANBJAL-WORS 13 IP.

825

known metaphorically as u the Dawn/ 5 afterwards becomes
the mother of some distinguished chief called “ the North
Wind/ 5 it will result that when, in course of time, the two
have been mistaken for the actual dawn and the actual
north wind, these will, by implication, be respectively con-
sidered as male and female.

Looking, now, at the ancient myths in general, their
seemingly most inexplicable trait is the habitual combina-
tion of alleged human ancestry and adventures, with the
possession of personalities otherwise figuring in the heavens
and on the earth, with totally non-human attributes. This
enormous incongruity, not the exception but the rule, the
current theory fails to explain. Suppose it to be granted
that the great terrestrial and celestial objects and agents
naturally become personalized ; it does not follow that each of
them shall have a specific human biography. To say of some
star that he was the son of this king or that hero, was born
in a particular place, and when grownup carried off the wife
of a neighbouring chief, is a gratuitous multiplication of in-
congruities already sufficiently great; and is not accounted
for by the alleged necessary personalization of abstract and
collective nouns. As looked at from our present stand-
point, however, such traditions become quite natural- — nay,
it is clear that they will necessarily arise. When a nick-
name has become a tribal name, it thereby ceases to be
individually distinctive; and, as already said, the process
of nicknaming inevitably continues. It commences afresh
with each child ; and the nickname of each child is both an
individual name and a potential tribal name, which may
become an actual tribal name if the individual is sufficiently
celebrated. Usually, then, there is a double set of distinc-
tions; under one of which the individual is known by his
ancestral name, and under the other of which he is known
by a name suggestive of something peculiar to himself :
just as we have seen happens among the Scotch clans.
Consider, now, what will result when language has reached

326

THE ORIGIN OR ANIMAL-WORSHIP.

a .stage of development such that it can convey the notion
of naming, and is able, therefore, to preserve traditions of
human ancestry. It will result that the individual will be
known both as the son of such and such a man by a mother
whose name was so and so, and also as “ the Crab ”, or “ the
Bear”, or “the Whirlwind” — supposing one of these to be Ms
nickname. Such joint use of nicknames and proper names
occurs in every school. Now, clearly, in advancing from the
early state in which ancestors become identified with the
objects they are nicknamed after, to the state in which there
are proper names that have lost their metaphorical mean-
ings, there must be passed through a state in which proper
names, partially settled only, may or may not be preserved,
and in which the new nicknames are still liable to be mis-
taken for actual names. Under such conditions there will
arise (especially in the case of a distinguished man) this
seemingly-impossible combination of human parentage with
the possession of the non-human, or superhuman, attributes
of the thing which gave the nickname. Another anomaly
simultaneously disappears. The warrior may have, and
often will have, a variety of complimentary nicknames —
“the powerful one,” “ the destroyer,” etc. Supposing his
leading nickname has been “ the Sun ” ; then when he comes
to be identified by tradition with the sun, it will happen
that the sun will acquire his alternative descriptive titles—™
the swift one, the lion, the wolf— -titles not obviously appro-
priate to the sun, but quite appropriate to the warrior.
Then there comes, too, an explanation of the remaining
trait of such myths. When this identification of con-
spicuous persons, male and female, with conspicuous natural
agents, has become settled, there will in duo course arise
interpretations of the actions of these agents in anthropo-
morphic terms, Suppose, for instance, that Endymion and
Selene, metaphorically named, the one after the setting sun,
the other after the moon, have had their human individual-
ities merged in those of the sun and moon, through mis-

THE ORIGIN 03? ANIMAL-WORSHIP. 327

interpretation of metaphors ; what will happen ? The legend
of their loves having to be reconciled with their celestial
appearances and motions, these will be spoken of as results
of feeling and will ; so that when the sun is going down in
the west, while the moon in mid-heaven is following him,
the fact will be expressed by saying : “ Selene loves and
watches Bndymion.” Thus we obtain a consistent explana-
tion of the myth without distorting it,* and without assuming
that it contains gratuitous fictions. We are enabled to
accept the biographical part of it, if not as literal fact, still
as having had fact for its root. We are helped to see how,
by an inevitable misinterpretation, there grew out of a more
or less true tradition, this strange identification of its person-
ages, with objects and powers totally non-human in their
aspects. And then we are shown how, from the attempt to
reconcile in thought these contradictory elements of the
myth, there arose the habit of ascribing the actions of these
non-human things to human motives.

One further verification may be drawn from facts which
are obstacles to the converse hypothesis. These objects
and powers, celestial and terrestrial, which force themselves
most on men’s attention, have some of them several proper
names, identified with those of different individuals, born
at different places, and having different sets of adventures.
Thus we have the sun variously known as Apollo, Endy-
mion, Helios, Tithonos, etc. — personages having irreconcil-
able genealogies. Such anomalies Prof. Max Muller
apparently ascribes to the untrustworthiness of traditions,
which are “careless about contradictions, or ready to solve
them sometimes by the most atrocious expedients.”

( Gltips , vol. ii., p. 84.) But if the evolution of the myth
has been that above indicated, there exists no anomalies
to be got rid of: these diverse genealogies become
parts of the evidence. For we have abundant proof that
the same objects furnish metaphorical names of men ip
different tribes. There are Duck tribes ip Australia, in
15

328

THE ORIGIN OP ANIMAL- WOES III.P.

Son tli- America, in North America. The eagle is still a
totem among the North Americans, as Mr. McLennan
shows- reason to conclude that it was among the Egyptians,
among the Jews, and among the Romans. Obviously, for
reasons already assigned, it naturally happened in the
early stages of the ancient races, that complimentary com-
parisons of their heroes to the Sun. were frequently made.
What resulted? The Sun having furnished names for
sundry chiefs and early founders of tribes, and local tradi-
tions having severally identified them with the Sun, these
tribes, when they grew, spread, conquered, or came other-
wise into partial union, originated a combined mythology,
which necessarily contained conflicting stories about the
Sun-god, as about its other leading personages. If the
N orth-American tribes, among several of which there are
traditions of a Sun-god, had developed a combined civiliza-
tion, there would similarly have arisen among them a
mythology which ascribed to the Sun several different
proper names and genealogies.

Let me briefly set down the leading characters of this
hypothesis which give it probability.

True interpretations of all the natural processes, organic
and inorganic, that have gone on in past times, habitually
trace them to causes still in action. It is thus in Geology *
it is thus in Biology; it is thus in Philology. Here we
find this characteristic repeated. Nicknaming, the inherit-
ance of nicknames, and to some extent, the misinterpretation
of nicknames, go on among ns still; and were surnames
absent, language imperfect, and knowledge as rudimentary
as of old, it is tolerably manifest that results would arise
like those we have contemplated.

A further characteristic of a true cause is that it accounts
not only for the particular group of phenomena to be inter-
preted, but also for other groups. The cause here alleged
does this. It equally well explains the worship of animals,

THE OFJGIN OF ANIMAL-WOESHIP. 829

of plants, of mountains, of winds, of celestial bodies, and
even of appearances too vague to be considered entities.
It gives us an intelligible genesis of feticliisfcic conceptions
in general. It furnishes us witli a reason for the practice,
otherwise so unaccountable, of moulding the words applied
to inanimate objects in such ways as to imply masculine
and feminine genders. It shows us how there naturally
arose the worship of compound animals, and of monsters
half man, half brute. And it shows us why the worship, of
purely anthropomorphic deities came later, when language
had so far developed that it could preserve in tradition the
distinction between proper names and nicknames.

A further verification of this view is, that it conforms to
the general law of evolution: showing us how, out of one
.simple, vague, aboriginal form of belief, there have arisen,
by continuous differentiations, the many heterogeneous forms
of belief which have existed and do exist. The desire to
propitiate the other self of the dead ancestor, displayed
among savage tribes, dominantly manifested by the early
historic races, by the Peruvians and Mexicans, by the
Chinese at the present time, and to a considerable degree
by ourselves (for what else is the wish to do that which a
lately-deceased parent was known to have desired?) has
been the universal first form of religious belief; and from
it have grown up the many divergent beliefs which have
been referred to.

Let me add, as a further reason for adopting this view,
that it immensely diminishes the apparently-great contrast
between early modes of thought and our own mode of
thought. Doubtless the aboriginal man differs considerably
from us, both in intellect and feeling. But such an inter-
pretation of the facts as helps us to bridge over the gap,
derives additional likelihood from doing this. The hypo-
thesis I have sketched out enables us to see that primitive
ideas are not so gratuitously absurd as wo suppose, and also

330 THE ORIGIN OF ANIMAL-WOESniP.

enables as to rehabilitate the ancient myth with far less
distortion than at first sight appears possible.

These views I bope to develop in the first part of The
Principles of Sociology . The large mass of evidence which
I shall be able to give in support of the hypothesis, joined
with the solutions it will be shown to yield of many minor
problems which I have passed over, will, I think, then give
to it a still greater probability than it seems now to have.

MORALS AND MORAL SENTIMENTS.

[First published in The Fortnightly Review/or April, 18/1.]

If a writer who discusses unsettled questions takes up
every gauntlet thrown down to him, polemical writing will
absorb much of his energy. Having a power of work
which unfortunately does not suffice for executing with
anything like due rapidity the task I have undertaken, I
have made it a policy to avoid controversy as much as
possible, even at the cost of being seriously misunderstood.
Hence it resulted that when in Macmillan* $ Magazine., for
July, 1809, Air. Richard Hutton published, under the title
“ A Questionable Parentage for Morals,” a criticism on a
doctrine of mine, I decided to let his misrepresentations
pass unnoticed until, in the course of my work, I arrived
at the stage where, by a full exposition of this doctrine,
they would be set aside. It did not occur to me that, in
the meantime, these erroneous statements, accepted as true
statements, would be repeated by other writers, and my
views commented upon as untenable. This, however, has
happened. In more periodicals than one, I have seen it
asserted that Mr. Hutton has effectually disposed of my
hypothesis. Supposing that this hypothesis has been
rightly expressed by Mr. Hutton, Sir John Lubbock, in
his Origin of Civilisation, &c., has been led to express a
partial dissent ; which I think he would not have ex-

332 MORALS AND MORAL SENTIMENTS.

pressed hud my own exposition been before bim. Mr.
Mivarb, too, in bis recent Genesis of Species, lias been
similarly betrayed into misapprehensions. And now Sir
Alexander Grant, following the same lead, has conveyed to
the readers of the Fortnightly Review another of these
conceptions, which is but very partially true. Thus I find
myself compelled to say as much as will serve to prevent
further spread of the mischief.

If a general doctrine concerning a highly-involved class
of phenomena could be adequately presented in a single
paragraph of a letter, the writing of books would be
superfluous. In the brief exposition of certain ethical
doctrines held by me, which is given in Professor Bain’s
Mental and Moral Science, it is stated that they are —

“ as yet, nowhere fully expressed. They form part of the more general doctrine
of Evolution which he is engaged in working out ; and they are at present
to he gathered only from scattered passages. It is true that, in his first
work, Social Statics, he presented what he then regarded as a tolerably
complete view of one division of Morals. But without abandoning this
view, he now regards it as inadequate — more' especially in respect of
its basis.” , ■■ v

Mr. Hutton, however, taking the bare enunciation of
one part of this basis, deals with it critically ; and, in the
absence of ary exposition by me, sets forth what he sup-
poses to be my grounds for it, and proceeds to show that
they are unsatisfactory.

If, in his anxiety to suppress what he doubtless regards
as a pernicious doctrine, Mr. Hutton could not wait until
I had explained myself, it might have been expected that
he would use whatever information was to be had concern-
ing it. So far from seeking out such information, however,
he has, in a way for which I cannot account, ignored the
information immediately before him.

The title which Mr. Hutton has chosen for his criticism
is, "A Questionable Parentage for Morals.” Now he has
ample means of knowing that I allege a primary basis of

MORALS AND MOEAL SENTIMENTS.

333

Morals, quite independent of tliat wbicb he describes and
rejects. I do not refer merely to the fact that haring,
when he 'reviewed -Social' Statics* expressed his very
decided dissent from this primary basis, he must have
been aware that I alleged it; for ho may say that in the
many years which have since elapsed he had forgotten all
about it. But I refer to the distinct enunciation of this
primary basis in that letter to Mr, Mill from which he
quotes. In a preceding paragraph of the letter, I have
explained that, while I accept utilitarianism in the abstract,
I do not accept that current utilitarianism which recognises
for the guidance of conduct nothing beyond empirical
generalizations; and I have contended that —

“ Morality, properly so-called — the science of right conduct— has for its
object to determine how and why certain modes of conduct are detrimental,
and certain other modes beneficial. These good and bad results cannot be
accidental, but must be necessary consequences of the constitution of
things; and I conceive it to be the business of Moral Science to deduce,
from the laws of life and the conditions of existence, what kinds of action
necessarily tend to produce happiness, and what kinds to produce unhap-
piness. Having done this, its deductions are to be recognised as laws of
conduct; and are to be conformed to irrespective of a direct estimation of
happiness or misery.”

Nor is this the only enunciation of what I conceive to be
the primary basis of morals, contained in this same letter.
A subsequent paragraph separated by four lines only from
that which Mr. Hutton extracts, commences thus : —

“ Progressing civilization, which is of necessity a succession of com-
promises between old and new, requires a perpetual re-adjustment of the
compromise between the ideal and the practicable in social arrangements :
to which end, both elements of the compromise must be kept in view. If it
is true that pure rectitude prescribes a system of things far too good for'
men as they are, it is not less true that mere expediency does not of itself
tend to establish a system of things any better than that which exists.
While absolute morality owes to expediency the checks which prevent it
from rushing into Utopian absurdities, expediency is indebted to absolute
morality for all stimulus to improvement. Granted that we are chiefly
interested in ascertaining what is relatively right, it still follows that we

* See Prospective Review for January, 1852.

834

MORALS AND MORAL SENTIMENTS.

must first consider what is absolutely right ; since the one conception pre-
supposes the other.”

I do not see how there could well Tbe a more emphatic
assertion, that there exists a primary basis of morals inde-
pendent of, and in a sense antecedent to, that which is
furnished by experiences of utility; and consequently,
independent of, and, in a sense antecedent to, those moral
sentiments which I conceive to be generated by such ex-
periences. Yet no one could gather from Mr. Hutton’s
article that I assert this; or would even find reasons for
a faint suspicion that I do so. From the reference made
to my further views, he would infer my acceptance of that
empirical utilitarianism which I have expressly repudiated.
And the title which Mr. Hutton gives to his paper clearly
asserts, by implication, that I recognize no “parentage for
morals” beyond that of the accumulation and organiza-
tion of the effects of experience. I cannot believe that
Mr. Hutton iutended to convey this erroneous impression.
He was, I suppose, too much absorbed in contemplating
the proposition ho combats to observe, or, at least, to
attach any weight to, the propositions which accompany it.
But I am sorry he did not perceive the mischief he was
likely to do me by spreading this one-sided statement.

I pass now to the particular question at issue — not the
“parentage for morals,” but the parentage of moral senti-
ments. In describing my view on this more special doctrine,
Mr. Hutton has similarly, I regret to say, neglected the
data which would have helped him to draw an approxi-
mately true outline of it. It cannot well be that the
existence of such data was unknown to him. They are
contained in the Principles of Psychology ; and Mr. Hutton
reviewed that work when it was first published.'* In a
chapter on the Feelings, which occurs near the end of it,

* His criticism will be found in tbe National Net new for January, 1850,
under the title “ Atheism.”

MORALS AND MORAL SENTIMENTS.

385

there is sketched out a process of evolution by no means
like that winch Mr. Hutton indicates; and had lie turned
to that chapter he would have seen that his description of
the genesis of moral sentiments out of organized expe-
riences is not such a one as I should have given. Let mo
quote a passage from that chapter, c

“Not only are those emotions which form the immediate stimuli to
actions, thus explicable ; but the like explanation applies to tho emotions that
leave the subject of them comparatively passive: as, for instance, the
emotion produced by beautiful scenery. The gradually increasing complexity
in the groups of sensations and ideas co-ordinated, ends in the co-ordination
of those vast aggregations of them which a grand landscape excites and
suggests. The infant taken into the midst of mountains, is totally unaffected
by them ; but is delighted with the small group of attributes and relations
presented in a toy. The child can appreciate, and be pleased with, the
more complicated relations of household objects and localities, the garden,
the field, and the street. But it is only in youth and mature age, when
individual things and small assemblages of them have become familiar and
automatically cognizable, that those immense assemblages which landscapes
present can be adequately grasped, and the highly aggregated states of con-
sciousness produced by them, experienced. Then, however, the various
minor groups of slates that have been in earlier days severally produced
by trees, by fields, by streams, by cascades, by rocks, by precipices, by
mountains, by clouds, are aroused together. Along with the sensations
immediately received, there are partially excited the myriads of sensations
that have been in times past received from objects such as those presented ;
further, there are partially excited the various incidental feelings that were
experienced on all these countless past occasions ; and there are probably
also excited certain deeper, but now vague combinations of states, that
were organized in the race during barbarous times, when its pleasurable
activities were chiefly among the woods and waters. And out of all these
excitations, soiue of them actual but most of them nascent, is composed the
emotion which a fine landscape produces in ns.”

It is, I think, amply manifest that the processes here
indicated are not to be taken as intellectual processes — not
as processes in which recognized relations between pleasures
and their antecedents, or intelligent adaptations of means
to ends, form the dominant elements. The state of mind
produced by an aggregate of picturesque objects is not
one resolvable into propositions. The sentiment does not
contain within itself any consciousness of causes and con-
sequences of happiness. The vague recollections of other

MORALS AND MORAL SENTIMENTS.

386

beautiful scenes and other delightful days which it dimly
rouses, are not aroused because of any rational co-ordina-
tions of ideas that have been formed in bygone years. Mr.
Hutton, however, assumes that in. speaking of the genesis
of moral feelings as due to inherited experiences of the plea-
sures and pains caused by certain modes of conduct, I am
speaking of reasoned-out experiences — experiences con-
sciously accumulated and generalized. He overlooks the fact
that the genesis of emotions is distinguished from the genesis
of ideas in this ; that whereas the ideas are composed of
elements that are simple, definitely related, and (in the
case of general ideas) constantly related, emotions are
composed of enormously complex aggregates ' of elements
that are never twice alike, and which stand in relations
that are never twice alike. The difference in the re-
sulting modes of consciousness is this : — In the genesis
of an idea the successive experiences, be they of spends,

. colours, touches, tastes, or be they of the special objects
which combine many of these into groups, have so much
in common that each, when it occurs, can be definitely
thought of as like those which preceded it. But in the
genesis of an emotion the successive experiences so far
differ that each of them, when it occurs, suggests past
experiences which are not specifically similar, but have
only a general similarity ; and, at the same time, it
suggests benefits or evils in past experience which like-
wise are various in their special natures, though they have a
certain community in general nature. - Hence it results that
the consciousness aroused is a multitudinous, confused con-
sciousness, in which, along with a certain kind of combina-
tion among the impressions received from without, there
is a vague cloud of ideal combinations akin to them, and a
vague mass of ideal feelings of pleasure or pain which were
associated with these. We have abundant proof that feel-
ings grow up without reference to recognized causes and
consequences, and without the possessor of them being able

837

MORALS AND MORAL SENTIMENTS,

to. say wiry they have grown up ; though analysis, neverthe-
less, shows that they have been formed out of connected
experiences. The familiar fact that a kind of jam which
was, during childhood, repeatedly taken after medicine,
may become, by simple association of sensations, so nauseous
that it cannot be tolerated in after-life, illustrates clearly
the way in which repugnances may be established by
habitual association of feelings, without any belief in can sal
connexion; or rather, in spite of the knowledge that there is
no causal connexion. Similarly with pleasurable emotions.
The cawing of rooks is not in itself an agreeable sound :
musically considered, it is very much the contrary. Yet
the cawing of rooks usually produces in people feelings of
a grateful kind — feelings which most of them suppose to
result from the quality of the sound itself. Only the few
who are given to self-analysis are aware that the cawing of
rooks is agreeable to them because it has been connected
with countless of their greatest gratifications — with the
gathering of wild flowers in childhood ; with Saturday-
afternoon excursions in school-boy days ; with midsummer
holidays in the country, when books were thrown aside and
lessons were replaced by games and adventures in the
fields ; with fresh, sunny mornings in after-years, when a
walking excursion was an immense relief from toil. As it
is, this sound, though not causally related to all these
multitudinous and varied past delights, but only often
associated with them, can no more be heard without rousing
a dim consciousness -of these delights, than the voice of an
old friend unexpectedly coming into the house can be heard
without suddenly raising a wave of that feeling that has
resulted from the pleasures of past companionship. If we
are to understand the genesis of emotions, either in the
individual or in the race, we must take account of this
all-important process. Mr. Hutton, however, apparently
overlooking it, and not having reminded himself, by refer-
ring to the Principles of Psychology, that I insist upon it.

338

MORALS AND MORAL SENTIMENTS.

represents my hypothesis to be that a certain sentiment
results from the consolidation of intellectual, conclusions S
He speaks of me as believing* that “ what seems to us now
the f necessary* intuitions and a priori assumptions of
human, nature, are likely to prove, when scientifically
analysed, nothing but a similar conglomeration of our
ancestors* best observations mid most useful empirical rules/ 3
He supposes me to think that men having, in past times,
come to see that truthfulness was useful, “the habit of
approving truth- speaking and fidelity to engagements,
which was first based on this ground of utility, became so
rooted, that the utilitarian ground of it was forgotten, and
we find ourselves springing to the belief in truth-speaking
and fidelity to engagements from an inherited tendency.*’
Similarly throughout, Mr. Hutton has so used the word
“utility,” and so interpreted it on my behalf, as to make
me appear to mean that moral sentiment is formed out of
conscious generalizations respecting what is beneficial and
what detrimental. Were such my hypothesis, his criticisms
would be very much to the point; but as such is not my
hypothesis, they fall to the ground. The experiences of
utility I refer to are those which become registered, not as
distinctly recognized connexions between certain kinds of
acts and. certain kinds of remote* results, but those which
become registered in the shape of associations between
groups of feelings that have often recurred together,
though the relation between them has not been consciously
generalized— -associations the origin of which may be as
little perceived as is the origin of the pleasure given by
the sounds of a rookery; but which, nevertheless, have
arisen in the course of daily converse with things, and serve
as incentives or deterrents.

In the paragraph which Mr. Hutton has extracted from
my letter to Mr. Mill, I have indicated an analogy between
those effects of emotional experiences out of which I believe
moral sentiments have been developed, and those effects of

MORALS AND MORAL SENTIMENTS. 339.

intellectual experiences out of -which I believe space-intui-
tions have been developed. Rightly considering that the
first of these hypotheses cannot stand if the last is dis-
proved, Mr. Hutton has directed part of his attack against
this last. But would it not have been -well if he had
referred to the Principles of Psychology , where this last
hypothesis is set forth at length, before criticising it ?
Would it not have been well to give an abstract of my own
description of the process, instead of substituting what he
supposes niy description must be ? Any one who turns to
the Principles of Psychology (first edition, pp. 218-245), and
reads the two chapters, “The Perception of Body as present-
ing Statical Attributes ”, and “ The Perception of Space ”,
will find that Mr. Hutton’s account of my view on this
matter has given him no notion of the view as it is expressed
by me; and will, perhaps, be less inclined to smile than
he was when he read Mr. Hutton’s account. I cannot hero
do more than thus imply the invalidity of such part of Mr.
Hutton’s argument as proceeds upon this incorrect repre-
sentation. The pages which would be required for properly
explaining the doctrine that space-intuitions result from or-
ganized experiences may be better used for explaining this
analogous doctrine at present before ns. This 1 will now
endeavour to do ; not indirectly by correcting* misapprehen-
sions, but directly by an exposition which shall be as brief
as the extremely involved nature of the process allows.

An infant in arms, when old enough to gaze at objects
around with some vague recognition, smiles in response to
the laughing face and soft caressing voice of its mother.
Let there come some one who, with an angry face, speaks
to it in loud, harsh tones. The smile disappears, the
features contract into an expression of pain, and, beginning
to cry, it turns away its head, and makes such movements
of escape as are possible. What is the meaning of these
facts ? Why does not the frown make it smile, and the
mother’s laugh make it weep ? There is but one answer.

040

MORALS AND MORAL SENTIMENTS.

Akeady in its developing brain there is coming info play
the structure through which one cluster of visual and
auditory impressions excites pleasurable feelings, and the
structure through which another cluster of visual and
auditory impressions excites painful feelings. The infant
knows no more about the relation existing between a
ferocious expression of face, and the evils which may follow
perception of it, than the young bird just out of its nest
knows of the possible pain and death which may be indicted
by a man coming towards it; and as certainly in the one
case as in the other, the alarm felt is due to a partially-
established nervous structure. Why does this partially-
established nervous structure betray its presence thus early
in the human being? Simply because, in the past expe-
riences of the human race, smiles and gentle tones in those
around have been the habitual accompaniments of plea-
surable feelings ; while pains of many kinds, immediate and
more or less remote, have been continually associated with
the impressions received from knit brows, and set teeth, and
grating voice. Much, deeper down than the history of the
human race must we go to find the beginnings of these
connexions. The appearances and sounds which excite in
the infant a vague dread, indicate danger ; and do so
because they are the physiological accompaniments of
destructive action — some of them common to man and
inferior mammals, and consequently understood by inferior
mammals, as every puppy shows ns. What we call the
natural language of anger, is due to a partial contraction of
those muscles which actual combat would call into play ;
and all marks of irritation, down to that passing shade over
the brow which accompanies slight annoyance, are incipient
stages of these same contractions. Conversely with the
natural language of pleasure, and of that state of mind
which we call amicable feeling : this, too, has a physiolo-
gical interpretation.*

* Hereafter I hope to elucidate at length these phenomena of expression.

MORALS AND MORAL SENTIMENT®.

m

Ijct ns pass now from the infant in arms to the children
in the nursery. What have the experiences of each been
doing in aid of the emotional development we are consider-
ing f While its limbs have been growing more agile by
exercise, its manipulative skill increasing by practice, its
perceptions of objects growing by use quicker, more accurate,
more comprehensive ; the associations between these two
sets of impressions received from those around, and the
pleasures and pains received along with them, or after them,
have been by frequent repetition made stronger, and their
adjustments better. The dim sense of pain and the vague
glow of delight which the infant felt, have, in the urchin,
severally taken shapes that are more definite. The angry
voice of a nursemaid no longer arouses only a formless
feeling of dread, but also a specific idea of the slap that
may follow. The frown on the face of a bigger brother,
along with the primitive, indefinable sense of ill, brings the
ideas of ills that are definable as kicks, and cuffs, and
pullings of hair, and losses of toys. The faces of parents,
looking now sunny, now gloomy, have grown to be respec-
tively associated with multitudinous forms of gratification
and multitudinous forms of discomfort or privation. II enco
these appearances and sounds, which imply amity or enmity
in those around, become symbolic of happiness and misery ;
so that eventually, perception of the one set or the other
can scarcely occur without raising a wave of pleasurable
feeling or of painful feeling. The body of this wave is still
substantially of the same nature as it was at first; for
though in each of those multitudinous experiences a special
set of facial and vocal signs has been connected with a
special set of pleasures or pains ; yet since these pleasures
or pains have been immensely varied in their kinds and
combinations, and since the signs that preceded them were

For the present, I can refer only to sucli further indications as are contained
in two essays on “The Physiology of Laughter” and “The Origin and

Function of Music.”

812 MORALS AND MORAL SENTIMENTS.

in no two cases quite alike, it results that even, to tlie end
tlie consciousness produced remains as vague as it is volu-
minous. The thousands of partially-aroused ideas resulting
from past experiences are massed together and superposed,
so as to form an aggregate in which, nothing is distinct, but
Which has the character of being pleasurable or painful
according to the nature of its original components : the
chief difference between this developed feeling and the
feeling aroused in the infant being', that on bright or dark
background forming the body of it, may now be sketched
out in thought the particular pleasures or pains which the
particular circumstances suggest as likely.

What must be the working of this process under the
conditions of aboriginal life ? The emotions given to the
young savage by the natural language of love and hate in
the members of his tribe, gain first a partial definiteness in
respect to his intercourse with his family and playmates j
and he learns by experience the utility, in so far as bis own
ends are concerned, of avoiding courses which call from
others manifestations of anger, and taking courses which call
fromthemmanifestations of pleasure. Not thathe consciously
generalizes. He does not at that age, probably not at any
age, formulate bis experiences in the general principle. that
it is well for him to do things which bring smiles, and to
avoid doing things which bring frowns. What happens is
that having, in the way shown, inherited this connexion
between the perception of anger in others and the feeling
of dread, and having discovered that certain acts of his
bring on this anger, he cannot subsequently think of com-
mitting one of these acts without thinking of the resulting
anger, and feeling more or less of the resulting dread. He
has no thought of the utility or inutility of the act itself : the
deterrent is the mainly vague, but partially definite, fear of
evil that may follow. So understood, the deterring emotion
is one which has grown out of experiences of utility, using
that word in its ethical sense; and if we ask why this

MORALS AND MORAL SENTIMENTS. 843

dreaded anger is called forth from others, we shall, habitually
find that it is because the forbidden act entails pain some-
where — is negatived by utility. On passing from dorn estie
injunctions to injunctions current in the tribe, we see no less
clearly how these emotions produced by approbation and
reprobation come to be connected in experience with actions
which are beneficial to the tribe, and actions which are
detrimental to the tribe j and how there consequently grow
up incentives to the one class of actions and prejudices
against the other class. From early boyhood the young
savage hears recounted the daring deeds of his chief — hears
them in words of praise, and sees all faces glowing with
admiration. From time to time also he listens while some
one’s cowardice is described in tones of scorn, and with
contemptuous metaphors, and sees him meet with derision
and insult whenever he appears. That is to say, one of the
things that come to be associated in his mind with smiling
faces, which are symbolical of pleasures in general, is
courage ; and one of the things that come to be associated
in his mind with frowns and other marks of enmity, which
form his symbol of unhappiness, is cowardice. These
feelings are not formed in him because he has reasoned his
way to the truth that courage is useful to the tribe, and, by
implication, to himself, or to the truth that cowardice is a
cause of evil. In adult life he may perhaps see this ; bat
he certainly does not see it at the time when bravery is
thus joined in his consciousness with all that is good, and
cowardice with all that is bad. Similarly there are pro-
duced in him feelings of inclination or repugnance towards
other lines of conduct that have become established or inter-
dicted, because they are beneficial or injurious to the tribe j
though: neither the young nor the adults know why they
have become established or interdicted. Instance the
praiseworthiness of wife-stealing, and the viciousness of
marrying within, the tribe.

We may now ascend a stage to an order of incentives

844 MORALS AND MORAL SENTIMENTS.

and restraints derived from these. The primitive belief is
that every dead man becomes a demon, who is often some-
where at hand, may at any moment return, may give aid or
do mischief, and has to be continually propitiated. Hence
among other agents whose approbation or reprobation, are
contemplated by the savage as consequences of his conduct,
are the spirits of his ancestors. When a child he is told of
their deeds, now in triumphant tones, now in whispers of
horror ; and the instilled belief that they may inflict some
vaguely-imagined but fearful evil, or give some great help,
becomes a powerful incentive or deterrent. Especially
does this happen when the story is of a chief, distinguished
for his strength, his ferocity, his persistence in that revenge
on enemies which the experiences of the savage make him
regard as beneficial and virtuous. The consciousness that
such a chief, dreaded by neighbouring tribes, and dreaded,
too, by members of his own tribe, may reappear and punish
those who have disregarded his injunctions, becomes a
powerful motive. But it is clear, in the first place, that the
imagined anger and the imagined satisfaction of this deified
chief, are simply transfigured forms of the anger and satis-
faction displayed by those around; and that the feelings
accompanying such imaginations have the same original
root in the experiences which have associated an average
of painful results with the manifestation of another’s
anger, and an average of pleasurable results with the
manifestation of another’s satisfaction. And it is clear,
in the second place, that the actions thus forbidden and
encouraged must be mostly actions that are respectively
detrimental and beneficial to the tribe; since the successful
chief is usually a better judge than the rest, and has the
preservation of the tribe at heart. Hence experiences of
Utility, consciously or unconsciously organized, underlie his
injunctions ; and the sentiments which prompt obedience
are, though very indirectly and without the knowledge of
those who feel them, referable to experiences of utility.

MORALS AMD MORAL SENTIMENTS.

845

This transfigured form of restraint, differing- at first but
little from, the original form, admits of immense develop-
ment. Accumulating traditions, growing in grandeur as they
are repeated from generation to generation, make more and
more superhuman the early-recorded hero of the race. His
powers of inflicting punishment and giving happiness be-
come ever greater* more multitudinous, and more varied ;
so that the dread of divine displeasure, and the desire to
obtain divine approbation, acquire a certain largeness and
generality. Still the conceptions remain anthropomorphic.
The revengeful deity continues to be thought of in terms
of human emotions, and continues to be represented as
displaying these emotions in human ways. Moreover, the
sentiments of right and duty, so far as they have become
developed, refer mainly to divine commands and interdicts ;
and have little reference to the natures of the acts com-
manded or interdicted. In the intended offering-up of
Isaac, in the sacrifice of Jephthali’s daughter, and in the
hewing to pieces of Agag, as much as in the countless
atrocities committed from religious motives by various early
historic races, as by some existing savage races, we see that
the morality and immorality of actions, as we understand
them, are at first little recognized ; and that the feelings,
chiefly of dread, which serve in place of them, are feelings
felt towards the unseen, beings supposed to issue the com-
mands and interdicts.

Here it will be said that, as just admitted, these are not
the moral sentiments properly so called. They are simply
sentiments that precede and make possible those highest
sentiments which do not refer either to personal benefits or
evils to be expected from men, or to more remote rewards
and punishments. Several comments are, however, called
forth by this criticism. One is, that if we glance back at
past beliefs and their correlative feelings, as shown in
Dante’s poem, in the mystery-plays of the middle ages, in
St. Bartholomew massacres, in burnings for heresy, we get

34G MORALS AND MORAL SENTIMENTS.

proof . that in comparatively modern times rigl.it and wrong
meant little else than subordination or insubordination — to
a divine rider primarily, and under him to a human ruler.
Another is, that down to our own day this conception
largely prevails, and is even embodied in elaborate ethical
works— instance the Essays on the Principles of Morality ,
by Jonathan Dymond, which recognizes no ground of moral
obligation save the will of God as expressed in the current
creed. And yet a further is, that while in sermons the
torments of the damned and the joys of the blessed are
set forth as the dominant deterrents and incentives, and
while we have prepared for us printed instructions “ how
to make the best of both worlds,” it cannot be denied
that the feelings which impel and restrain men are still
largely composed of elements like those operative on the
savage : the dread, partly vague, partly specific, associated
with the idea of reprobation, human and divine, and the
sense of satisfaction, partly vague, partly specific, associated
with the idea of approbation, human and divine.

But during the growth of that civilization which has
been made possible by these ego-altruistic sentiments, there
have been slowly evolving the altruistic sentiments. De-
velopment of these has gone on only as fast as society has
advanced to a state in which the activities are mainly
peaceful. The root of all the altruistic sentiments is
sympathy ; and sympathy could become dominant only
when the mode of life, instead of being one that habitually
inflicted direct pain, became one which conferred direct
and indirect benefits : the pains inflicted being mainly
incidental and indirect. Adam Smith made a large step
towards this truth when he recognized sympathy as giving
rise to these superior controlling emotions. His Theory
of Moral Sentiments, however, requires to be supplemented
in two ways. The natural process by which sympathy
becomes developed into a more and more important element
of human nature has to be. explained ; and there has also

MORALS AMD MORAL SENTIMENTS. 347

to Lo explained tlio process "by which sympathy produces
the highest and most complex of the altruistic sentiments —
that of justice. Respecting the first process, I can here do
no more than say that sympathy may he proved, both,
inductively and deductively, to he the concomitant of
gregariousness: the two having all along increased by
reciprocal aid. Multiplication has ever tended to force
into an association, more or less close, all creatures having
kinds of food and supplies of food that permit association ;
and established psychological laws warrant the inference
that some sympathy will inevitably result from habitual
manifestations of feelings in presence of one another, and
that the gregariousness being augmented by the increase of
sympathy, further facilitates the development of sympathy.
But there are negative and positive checks upon this deve-
lopment-— negative, because sympathy cannot advance faster
than intelligence advances, since it presupposes the power
of interpreting the natural language of the various feelings,
and of mentally representing those feelings ; positive, be-
cause the immediate needs of self-preservation are often at
variance with its promptings, as, for example, during the
predatory stages of human progress. For explanations of
the second process, I must refer to the Principles of Psycho-
logy (§ 202, first edition, and § 2.15, second edition) and to
Social Statics, part ii. chapter v.* Asking that in default
of space these explanations may be taken for granted, let
me here point out in what sense even sympathy, and the
sentiments that result from it, are due to experiences of
utility. If we suppose all thought of rewards or punish-
ments, immediate or remote, to be left out of consideration,
it is clear that any one who hesitates to inflict a pain because

* I may add that in Social Statics, chap, xxx., I have indicated, in a general
way, the causes of ihe development of sympathy and the restraints upon its
development — confining the discussion, however, to the case of the human
race, my subject limiting me to that. The accompanying teleology I now
disclaim.

848 MOEAIiS AND MOEAL SENTIMENTS.

of the vivid representation of tliat pain which rises in Lis
consciousness., is restrained, not by any sense of obligation
or by any formulated doctrine of utility, but by the painful
association established in him. And it is clear 1 that if , after
repeated experiences of the moral discomfort he has felt
from witnessing the unhappiness indirectly caused by some
of his acts, he is led to check himself when again tempted
to those acts, the restraint is of like nature. Conversely
with the pleasure-giving acts : repetitions of kind deeds, and
experiences of the sympathetic gratifications that follow,
tend continually to make stronger the association between
such deeds and feelings of happiness.

Eventually these experiences maybe consciously general-
ized, and there may result a deliberate pursuit of sympa-
thetic gratifications. There may also come to be distinctly
recognized the truths that the remoter results, kind and
unkind conduct, are respectively beneficial and detrimen-
tal — -that due regard for others is conducive to ultimate
personal welfare, and disregard of others to ultimate per-
sonal disaster j and then there may become current such
summations of experience as “ honesty is the best policy.”
But so far from regarding these intellectual recognitions
of utility as preceding and causing the moral sentiment, I
regard the moral sentiment as preceding such recognitions
of utility, and making them possible. The pleasures and
pains directly resulting in experience from sympathetic and
unsympathetic actions, had first to he slowly associated
with such actions, and the resulting incentives and deter-
rents frequently obeyed, before there could arise the per-
ceptions that sympathetic and unsympathetic actions are
remotely beneficial or detrimental to the actor ; and they
had to be obeyed still longer and more generally before
there could arise the perceptions that they are socially
beneficial or detrimental. When, however, the remote
effects, personal and social, have gained general recog-
nition, are expressed in current maxims, and lead to in-

MORALS AND MORAL SENTIMENTS.

849

junctions having the religious sanction, the sentiments
that prompt sympathetic actions and check unsympathetic
ones are immensely strengthened by their alliances. Ap-
probation and reprobation, divine and human, come to be
associated in thought with the sympathetic and unsym-
pathetic actions respectively. The commands of the creed,
the legal penalties, and the code of social conduct, unitedly
enforce them ; and every child as it grows up, daily has
impressed on it by the words and faces and voices of those
around the authority of these highest principles of conduct.
And now we may see why there arises a belief in the
special sacredness of these highest principles, and a sense
of the supreme authority of the altruistic sentiments
answering to them. Many of the actions which, in early
social states, received the religious sanction and gained
public approbation, had the drawback that such sympathies
as existed were outraged, and there was hence an imperfect
satisfaction. Whereas these altruistic actions, while simi-
larly having the religious sanction and gaining public
approbation, bring a sympathetic consciousness of pleasure
given or of pain prevented; and, beyond this, bring a
sympathetic consciousness of human welfare at large, as
being furthered by making altruistic actions habitual.
Both this special and this general sympathetic conscious-
ness become stronger and wider in proportion as the power
of mental representation increases, and the imagination of
consequences, immediate and remote, grows more vivid and
comprehensive. Until at length these altruistic sentiments
begin to call in question the authority of those ego- altruistic
sentiments which once ruled unchallenged. They prompt
resistance to laws that do not fulfil the conception of justice,
encourage men to brave tbe frowns of their fellows by
pursuing a course at variance with customs that are per-
ceived to be socially injurious, and even cause dissent from
the current religion; either to the extent of disbelief in
those alleged divine attributes and acts not approved by this

850 MORALS ASH) MORAL SENTIMENTS.

supreme moral arbiter, or to the extent of entire rejection
of a creed which ascribes such attributes and acts.

Much that is required to make this hypothesis complete
must stand over until, at the close of the second volume of
the Principles of Psychology, I have space for a full ex-
position. What I have said will make it sufficiently clear
that two fundamental errors have been made in the inter-
pretation put upon it. Both Utility and Experience have
been construed in senses much too narrow. Utility, con-
venient a word as it is from its comprehensiveness, has
very inconvenient and misleading* implications. It vividly
suggests uses, and means, and proximate ends, but very
faintly suggests the pleasures, positive or negative, which
are the ultimate ends, and which, in the ethical meaning*
of the word, are alone considered; and, further, it implies
conscious recognition of means and ends — implies the
deliberate taking* of some course to gain a perceived
benefit. Experience, too, in its ordinary acceptation, con-
notes definite perceptions of causes and consequences, as
standing in observed relations, and is not taken to include
the connexions formed in consciousness between states
that recur together, when the relation between them, causal
or other, is not perceived. It is in their widest senses,
however, that I habitually use these words, as will be
manifest to every one who reads the Principles of Psychology ;
and it is in their widest senses that I have used them in
the letter to Mr. Mill. I think I have shown above that,
when they are so understood, the hypothesis briefly set
forth in that letter is by no means so indefensible as is
supposed. At any rate, I have shown- — -what seemed for
the present needful to show-— that 'Mr. Hutton’s versions of
my views must not be accepted as correct.

THE COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY OE MAH.

[ Originally read before the Anthropological Institute, and after-
wards published in Mind, for January, 1S76.]

"While discussing* with two members of the Anthropo-
logical Institute the work to be undertaken by its psycho-
logical section, I made certain suggestions which they
requested me to put in writing. When reminded, some
months after, of the promise I had made to do this, I
failed to recall the particular suggestions referred to ,* but
in the endeavour to remember them, I was led to glance
over the whole subject of comparative human psychology.
Hence resulted the following paper.

That making a general survey is useful as a preliminary
to deliberate study, either of a whole or of any part,
scarcely needs showing. Vagueness of thought accom-
panies the wandering about in a region without known
bounds or landmarks. Attention devoted to some portion
of a. subject in ignorance of its connexion with the rest,
leads to untrue conceptions. The whole cannot be rightly
conceived without some knowledge of the parts ; and, no
part can be rightly conceived out of relation to the whole.

To map out the Comparative Psychology of Man must
also conduce to the more methodic carrying on of inquiries.

In this, as in other things, division of labour will facilitate
16

352 TUG COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY OP STAS’.

progress; and tliat there may he division of labour, the
work itself mast be systematically divided.

We may conveniently separate the entire subject into
throe main divisions, and may arrange them in the order
of increasing speciality.

The first division will treat of the degrees of mental,
evolution of different human types, generally considered :
taking account of both the mass of mental manifestation
and the complexity of mental manifestation. This division
will include the relations of these characters to physical
characters — the bodily mass and. structure, and the cerebral
mass and structure. It will also include inquiries con-
cerning the time taken in completing mental evolution, and
the time during which adult mental power lasts ; as well
as certain most general traits of mental action, such as the
greater or less persistence of emotions and of intellectual
processes. The connexion between the general mental
type and the general social type should also be here
dealt with.

In the second division may be conveniently placed apart,
inquiries concerning the relative mental natures of the
sexes in each race. Under it will come such questions as
these What differences of mental mass and mental com-
plexity, if any, existing between males and females, are
common to all races? Do such differences vary in degree,
or in kind, or in both ? Are there reasons for thinking
that they are liable to change by increase or decrease ?
What relations do they bear in each case to the habits of
life, the domestic arrangements, and the social arrange-
ments ? This division should also include in its scope the
sentiments of the sexes towards one another, considered as
varying quantitatively and qualitatively; as well as their
respective sentiments towards offspring, similarly varying*.

Tor the third division of inquiries may be reserved the
more special mental traits distinguishing different types of
men. One class of such specialities results from differences

THE COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY OP MAN.

858

of proportion among faculties possessed in common; and
another class results from the presence in some races of
faculties that are almost or quite absent from others. Each
difference in each of these groups, when established by
comparison, has to be studied in connexion with the stag©
of mental evolution reached, and has to be studied in
connexion with the habits of life and the social develop-
ment, regarding it as related to these both as cause and
as consequence.

Such being the outlines of these several divisions, let us
now consider in detail the subdivisions contained within
each.

I. — Under the head of general mental evolution we may
begin with the trait of —

1. Mental mass . — Daily experiences show us that human
beings differ in volume of mental manifestation. Some
there are whose intelligence, high though it may be, pro-
duces little impression on those around ; while there are
some who, when uttering even commonplaces, do it so as
to affect listeners in a disproportionate degree. Comparison
of two such, makes it manifest that, generally, the dif-
ference is due to the natural language of the emotions.
Behind the intellectual quickness of the one there is not
felt any power of character; while the other betrays a
momentum capable of bearing' down opposition — a poten-
tiality of emotion that has something formidable about
it. Obviously the varieties of mankind differ much in
respect of this trait. Apart from kind of feeling, they are
unlike in amount of feeling. The dominant races overrun
the inferior races mainly in virtue of the greater quantity
of energy in which this greater mental mass shows itself.
Hence a series of inquiries, of which these are some : — (a)
What is the relation hetweeu mental mass and bodily mass ?
Manifestly, the small races are deficient in it. But it also

S54 THE COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY OP MAH.

appears that races much •upon a par in size — as, for
instance, an Englishman and a Pamara, differ considerably
in mental mass, (b) What is its relation to mass of brain ?
and, bearing in mind the general law that in the same
species, size of brain increases with size of body (though
not in the same proportion), how far can we connect the
extra mental mass of the higher races, with an extra mass
of brain beyond that which is proper to their greater
bodily mass ? (c) What relation, if any, is there between

mental mass and the physiological state expressed in vigour
of circulation and richness of blood, as severally determined
by mode of life and general nutrition? (dj What are the
relations of this trait to the social state, as nomadic or
settled, predatory or industrial ?

2. Mental complexity . — How races differ in respect of
the more or less involved structures of their minds, will
best be understood on recalling the unlikeness between the
juvenile mind and the adult mind among ourselves. In
the child we see absorption in special facts. Generalities
even of a low order are scarcely recognized, and there is
no recognition of high generalities. We see interest in
individuals, in personal adventures, in domestic affairs, but
no interest in political or social matters. We see vanity
about clothes and small achievements, but little sense of
justice : witness the forcible appropriation of one another’s
toys. While there have come into play many of the
simpler mental powers, there has not yet been reached
that complication of mind which results from the addition
of powers evolved out of these simpler ones. Kindred differ-
ences of complexity exist between the minds of lower and
higher races ; and comparisons should be made to ascertain
their kinds and amounts. Here, too, there may be a sub-
division of the inquiries, (a) What . is the relation between
mental complexity and mental mass ? Do not the two
habitually vary together ? (b) What is the relation to the

THE COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY OP MAH.

855

social state, as more or less complex ? that is to say — Do
not mental complexity and social complexity act and react
on each other ?

8. Rate of mental development . — In conform! fey with the
biological law that the higher the organisms the longer
they take to evolve, members of the inferior human races
may be expected to complete their mental evolution sooner
than members of the superior races ; and we have evidence
that they do this. Travellers from many regions comment,
now on the great precocity of children among savage and
semi-civilized peoples, and now on the early arrest of their
mental progress. Though we scarcely need more proofs
that this general contrast exists, there remains to be asked
the question, whether it is consistently maintained through-
out all groups of races, from the lowest to the highest — •
whether, say, the Australian differs in this respect from the
Hindu, as much as the Hindu does from the European.
Of secondary inquiries coming under this sub-head may be
named several, (a) Is this more rapid evolution and
earlier arrest always unequally shown by the two sexes; or,
in other words, are there in lower types proportional
differences in rate and degree of development, such as
higher types show us ? (b) Is there in many cases, as there

appears to be in some eases, a traceable relation between
the period of arrest and the period of puberty? (e) Is
mental decay early in proportion as mental evolution is
rapid? (d) Can we in other respects assert that where
the type is low, the entire cycle of mental changes between
birth and death — ascending, uniform, descending — comes
within a shorter interval ?

4. Relative plasticity . — Is there any relation between the
degree of mental modifiability which remains in adult life,
and the character of the mental evolution in respect of mass,
complexity, and rapidity ? The animal kingdom at large
yields reasons for associating an inferior and more rapidly-
completed mental structure, with a relatively automatic

356

TEE COMrA.EA.TIVE PSYCHOLOGY 0E MAE.

nature. Lowly organized creatures, guided almost en tiroly
by reflex actions, are in but small degrees changeable by
individual experiences. As the nervous structure com-
plicates, its actions become less rigorously confined within
pre-established limits j and as we approach the highest
creatures, individual experiences take larger and larger
shares in moulding the conduct: there is ail increasing
ability to take in new impressions and to profit by the
acquisition^. Inferior and superior human races are con-
trasted in this respect. Many travellers comment on the
unchangeable habits of savages. The semi-civilized nations
of the East, past and present, were, or are, characterized
by a greater rigidity of custom than characterizes the more
civilized nations of the West. The histories of the most
civilized nations show us that in their earlier times, the
modifiability of ideas and habits was less than it is at
present. And if we contrast classes or individuals around
us, we see that the most developed in mind are the most
plastic. To inquiries respecting this trait of comparative
plasticity, in its relations to precocity and early completion
of mental development, may fitly be added inquiries respect-
ing its relations to the social state, which it helps to
determine, and which reacts upon it.

5. Variability . — To say of a mind that its actions are
extremely inconstant, and at the same time to say that it is
of relatively unchangeable nature, apparently implies a con-
tradiction. When, however, the inconstancy is understood
as referring to the manifestations which follow one another
from minute to minute, and the unchangeableness to the
average manifestations, extending over long periods, the
apparent contradiction disappears j and it becomes com-
prehensible that the two traits may, and ordinarily do, co-
exist. An infant, quickly wearied with each kind of percep-
tion, wanting ever a new object which it soon abandons
for something else, and alternating a score times a day
between smiles and tears, shows ns a very small persistence

THE COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY OP MAS;

857

i'n on eli land of mental action: all its states, intellectual and
emotional, are transient. Yet at tlie same time its mind
cannot lie easily changed in character. True, it changes
spontaneously in due course; but it long remains incapable
of receiving ideas or emotions beyond those of simple
orders. The child exhibits less rapid variations, intellec-
tual and emotional, while its educability is greater. Inferior
human races show ns this combination: great rigidity of
general character with great irregularity in its passing
manifestations. Speaking broadly, while they resist per-
manent modification, they lack intellectual persistence, and
they lack emotional persistence. Of various low types we
read that they cannot keep the attention fixed beyond a few
minutes on anything requiring thought, even of a simple
kind. Similarly with their feelings: these are less enduring
than those of civilized men. There are, however, qualifica-
tions to be made in this statement; and comparisons are
needed to ascertain how far these qualifications go. The
savage shows great persistence in the action of the lower
intellectual faculties. He is untiring in minute observation.
He is untiring, also, in that kind of perceptive activity
•which accompanies the making of his weapons and orna-
ments: often persevering for immense periods in carving
Stones, &c. Emotionally, too, he shows persistence not
only in the motives prompting these small industries, hut
also in certain of his passions — especially in that of revenge.
Hence, in studying the degrees of mental variability shown
us in the daily lives of the different races, we must ask how
far variability characterizes the whole mind, and how far it
holds only of parts of the mind.

6. Impulsiveness . — This trait is closely allied with the
last : unenduring emotions are emotions which sway the
conduct now this way and now that, without any consist-
ency. The trait of impulsiveness may, however, he fitly
dealt with separately, because it has other implications than
mere lack of persistence. Comparisons of the lower human

858

TEE COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY OP MAN.

races with the higher, appear generally to show that, along*
"with "brevity of the passions, there goes violence. The
sudden gusts of feeling which, men of inferior types display,
are excessive in degree as they are short in duration ; and
there is probably a connexion between these two traits :
intensity sooner producing exhaustion. Observing that
the passions of childhood illustrate this connexion, let us
turn to certain interesting questions concerning the decrease
of impulsiveness which accompanies advance in evolution.
The nervous processes of an impulsive being, are less
remote from reflex actions than are those of an unimpulsivo
being. In reflex actions we see a simple stimulus passing
suddenly into movement : little or no control being exercised
by other parts of the nervous system. As we ascend to
higher actions, guided by more and more complicated, com-
binations of stimuli, there is not the same instantaneous
discharge in simple motions; but there is a comparatively
deliberate and more variable adjustment of compound
motions, duly restrained and proportioned. It is thus with
the passions and sentiments in the less developed natures
and in the more developed natures. Where there is but
little emotional complexity, an emotion, when excited by
some occurrence, explodes in action before the other
emotions have been called into play ; and each of these,
from time to time, does the like. But the more complex
emotional structure is one in which these simpler emotions
ore so co-ordinated that they do not act independently.
Before excitement of any one has had time to cause action,
some excitement has been communicated to others-— often
antagonistic ones; and the conduct becomes modified in
adjustment to the combined dictates. Hence results a
decreased impulsiveness, and also a greater persistence.
The conduct pursued, being prompted by several emotions
co-operating in degrees which do not exhaust them,
acquires a greater continuity ; and while spasmodic force
becomes less conspicuous, there is an increase in the total

THE COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY OF MAN.

859

energy. Examining the facts from this point of view, there
are sundry questions of interest to he put respecting the
different races of men. ■ (a) To what other traits than
degree of mental evolution is impulsiveness related ? Apart
from difference in elevation of type/ the New-World races
seem to be less impulsive than the Old-World races. Is
this due to constitutional apathy ? Can there be traced
(other things equal) a relation between physical vivacity
and mental impulsiveness ? (6) What connexion is there

between this trait and the social state ? Clearly a very
explosive nature — such as that of the Bushman — is unlit
for social union; and, commonly, social union, when by
any means established, checks impulsiveness, (c) What
respective shares in checking impulsiveness are taken by
the feelings which the social state fosters-— such as the fear
of surrounding individuals, the instinct of sociality, the
desire to accumulate property, the sympathetic feelings, the
sentiment of justice ? These, which require a social environ-
ment for their development, all of them involve imagina-
tions of consequences more or less distant ; and thus imply
checks upon the promptings of the simpler passions. Hence
arise the questions — In what order, in what degrees, and in
what combinations, do they come into play?

7. One further general inquiry of a different kind may be
added. What effect is produced on mental nature by
mixture of races? There is reason for believing that
throughout the animal kingdom, the union of varieties
Which have become widely divergent is physically injurious ;
while the union of slightly divergent varieties is physically
beneficial. Does the like hold with the menial nature?
Some facts seem to show that mixture of human races
extremely unlike, produces a worthless type of mind — a
mind fitted neither for the kind of life led by the higher
of the two races, not for that led by the lower — a mind
out of adjustment to all conditions of life. Contrariwise,
we find that peoples of the same stock, slightly differenti-

360 THE COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY OP MAN ,

ated by lives carried on in unlike circumstances for many
generations, produce by mixture a mental type having
certain superiorities. In his work on The Huguenots, Mr.: '
Smiles points out how large a number of distinguished men
among us have descended from Flemish, and French
refugees • and M. Alphonse de Candolle, in his Ifistoire
des Sciences, et des Savants depuis deux Swedes, shows that
the descendants of French refugees in Switzerland have
produced an unusually great proportion of scientific men.
Though, in part, this result may be ascribed to the original
natures of such refugees, who must have had that inde-
pendence which is a chief factor in originality, yet it is
probably in part due to mixtures of races. For thinking
this, we have evidence which is not open to two interpreta-
tions. Prof. Morley draws attention to the fact that,
during seven hundred years of our early history “ the best
genius of England sprang up on the line of country in
which Celts and Anglo-Saxons came together.” In like
manner Mr. Galton, in his English Men of Science , shows
that in recent days these have mostly come from an inland
region, running generally from north to south, which we
may reasonably presume contains more mixed blood than
do the regions east and west of it. Such a result seems
probable a priori. Two natures respectively adapted to
slightly unlike sets of social conditions, may be expected
by their union to produce a nature somewhat more plastic
than either — a nature more impressible by the new circum-
stances of advancing social life, and therefore more likely to
originate new ideas and display modified sentiments. The
Comparative Psychology of Man may, then, fitly include
the mental effects of mixture ; and among derivative in-
quiries we may ask—- How far the conquest of race by race
has been instrumental in advancing civilization by aiding
mixture, as well as in other ways.

II. — The second of the three leading divisions named

THE COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY OF MAN. 301

at the outset is less extensive. Still, concerning the
relative mental natures of the sexes in each race, ques-
tions of much interest and importance may he raised.

1. Degree of difference between the sexes. — It is an es-
tablished fact that, physically considered, the contrast
between males and females is not equally great in all
types of mankind. The bearded races, for instance, show
us a greater unlikeness between the two than do the
beardless races. Among South American tribes, men and
women have a greater general resemblance in form, &c.,
than is usual elsewhere. The question, then, suggests
itself— Do the mental natures of the sexes differ in a
constant or in a variable degree f The difference is
unlikely to be a constant onej and, looking for variation,
we may ask what is its amount, and under what condi-
tions does it occur ?

2. Difference in mass and in complexity. — The compari-
sons between the sexes, of course, admit of subdivisions
parallel to those made in the comparisons between races.
Relative mental mass and relative mental complexity have
chiefly to be observed. Assuming that the great inequality
in the cost of reproduction to the two sexes, is the cause of
unlikeness in mental mass, as in physical mass, this differ-
ence may be studied in connexion with reproductive
differences presented by the various races, in respect of the
ages at which reproduction commences, and the .periods.,
over which it lasts. An allied inquiry may be joined with
this ; namely, how far the mental developments of the two
sexes are affected by their relative habits in respect to
food and physical exertion? In many of the lower races,
the women, treated with great brutality, are, physically,
much inferior to the men : excess of labour and defect of
nutrition being apparently the combined causes. Is any
arrest of mental development simultaneously caused ?

3. Variation of the differences. — If the unlilceness.

S62 THE COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY OP MAW.

physical and mental, of the sexes is not constant, then,
supposing all races have diverged from one original stock,
it follows that there must have been, transmission of
accumulated differences to those of the . same sex in pos-
terity. If, for instance, the prehistoric type of man was
beardless, then the production of a bearded variety implies
that within that variety the males continued to transmit an
increasing amount of beard to descendants of the same
sex. This limitation of heredity by sex, shown us in multi-
tudinous ways throughout the animal kingdom, probably
applies to the cerebral structures as much as to other
structures. Hence the question — Do not the mental
natures of the sexes in alien types of Man diverge in
unlike ways and degrees ?

4. Causes of the differences , — Are any relations to be
traced between these variable differences and the variable
parts the sexes play in the business of life ? Assuming
the cumulative effects of habit on function find structure,
as well as the limitation of heredity by sex, it is to be
expected that if, in any society, the activities of one sex,
generation after generation, differ from those of the other,
there will arise sexual adaptations of mind. Some in-
stances in illustration may be named. Among the Africans
of Loango and other districts, as also among some of the
Indian Hill-tribes, the men and women are strongly
contrasted as respectively inert and energetic : the industry
of the women having apparently become so natural to
them that no coercion is needed. Of course, such facts
suggest an extensive series of questions. Limitation of
heredity by sex may account both for those sexual
differences of mind which distinguish men and women in
all races, and for those which distinguish them in each
race, or each society. An interesting subordinate inquiry
may be, how far such mental differences are inverted in
cases where there is inversion of social and domestic

THE COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY OP MAH. 863

■■relations ; as among those Ivhasi Hill-tribes, whose women
have so far the upper hand that they turn off their
husbands in a summary way if they displease them.

5. Mental modifiability in the two sexes . — Along with
comparisons of races in respect, of mental plasticity may
go parallel comparisons of the sexes in each race. Is it
true always, as it appears to be generally true, that women
are less modifiable than men? The relative conservatism
of women — their greater adhesion to established ideas and
practices — is manifest in many civilized and semi-civilized
societies. Is it so among the uncivilized? A curious
instance of stronger attachment to custom in women than
in men is given by Dalton, as occurring* among the Jnangs,
one of the lowest wild tribes of Bengal. Until recently the
only dress of both sexes was something less than that
which the Hebrew legend gives to Adam and Eve. Tears
ago the men were led to adopt a cloth bandage round the
loins, in place of the hunch of leaves; but the women
adhered to the aboriginal habit: a conservatism shown
where it might have been least expected.

6. The sexual sentiment . — Results of value may be looked

for from comparisons of races made to determine the
amounts and characters of the higher feeling's to which the
relation of the sexes gives rise. The lowest varieties of
mankind have but small endowments of these feelings.
Among varieties of higher types, such as the Malayo-
Polynesians, these feelings seem considerably developed :
the Dyaks, for instance, sometimes display them in great
strength. Speaking’ generally, they appear to become
stronger with the advance of civilization. Several sub-
ordinate inquiries may be named. ( a ) How far is develop-
ment of the sexual sentiment dependent upon intellectual
advance— -upon growth of imaginative power? (b) How
far is it related to emotional advance; and especially to
evolution of those emotions which originate from, sympathy ?
What are its relations to polyandry and polygyny ? (c)

864

Tins COMPILATIVE PSYCHOLOGY OP MAN,

Does it not tend towards, and is it not fostered by, mono-
gamy? (d) What connexion has it with maintenance of the
family bond, and the consequent better rearing of children?

III.— Under the third head, to which we may now pass
come the more special traits of the different races.

1. Imitatweness . — One of the characteristics in which
the lower types of men show us a smaller departure from
reflex action than do the higher types, is their strong
tendency to mimic the motions and sounds made by others
-—an almost involuntary habit which travellers find it
difficult to check. This meaningless repetition, which
seems to imply that the idea of an observed action cannot
bo framed in the mind of the observer without tending
forthwith to discharge itself in the action conceived (and
every ideal action is a nascent form of the consciousness
accompanying performance of such action), evidently
diverges but little from the automatic ; and decrease of it
is to be expected along with increase of self-regulating
power. This trait of automatic mimicry is evidently allied .
with that less automatic mimicry which shows itself in
greater persistence of customs. For customs adopted by
each generation from the last without thought or inquiry,
imply a tendency to imitate which overmasters critical and -
sceptical tendencies : so maintaining habits for which no
reasons can be given. The decrease of this irrational
mimicry, strongest in the lowest savage and feeblest in the
highest of the civilized/should be studied along with the
successively higher stages of social life, as being* at once an
aid and a hindrance to civilization : an aid in so far as it
gives that fixity to the social organization without which a
society cannot survive ; a hindrance in so far as it offers
resistance to changes of social organization that have
become desirable.

2. Incuriosity . — Projecting our own natures into the
circumstances of the savage, we imagine ourselves as

TIIB COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY OF MAY.

ASA

real-veiling greatly on first seeing tlie products and appli-
ances of civilized life.' But wo err in supposing that tlie
savage lias feelings such as we should have in his place.
Want of rational curiosity respecting these incomprehensible
novelties, is a trait remarked of the lowest races wherever
found; and the partially-civilized races are distinguished
from them as exhibiting rational curiosity. The relation
of this trait to the intellectual nature, to the emotional
nature, and to the social state, should bo studied.

S. Quality of thought . — Under this vague head may be
placed many sets of inquiries, each of them extensive—
(a) The degree of generality of the ideas; (b) the degree of
abstractness of the ideas ; (c) the degree of definiteness
of the ideas ; (d) the degree of coherence of the ideas; (e)
the extent to which there have been developed such notions
as those of class, of cause, of uniformity, of law, of truth.
Many conceptions which have become so familiar to us that
we assume them to be the common property of all minds,
are no more possessed by the lowest savages than they are
by our own children ; and comparisons of types should be
so made as to elucidate the processes by which such con-
ceptions are reached. The development under each head
has to be observed— -(a) independently in its successive
* stages ; (b) in connexion with the co-operative intellectual
' conceptions ; (c) in connexion with the progress of language,
of the arts, and of social organization. Already linguistic
phenomena have been used in aid of such inquiries ; and
more systematic use of them should be made. Not only
the number of general words, and the number of abstract
words, in a peopled vocabulary should be taken as evidence,
but also their degrees of generality and abstractness ; for
there are generalities of the first, second, third, &c., orders,
and abstractions similarly ascending. Blue is an abstrac-
tion referring to one class of impressions derived from
visible objects ; colour is a higher abstraction referring to
many such classes of visual impressions ; property is a still

366

THE COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY OP MAN,

higher abstraction referring to classes of impressions
received not through the eyes alone, but through other
sense-organs. If generalities and abstractions were
arranged in the order of their extensiveness and in the
order of their grades, tests would be obtained which,
applied to the vocabularies of the uncivilized, would yield
definite evidence of the intellectual stages reached.

4. Peculiar aptitudes . — To such specialities of intelli-
gence as mark different degrees of evolution, have to be
added minor ones related to modes of life : the kinds and
degrees of faculty which have become organized in adap-
tation to- daily habits — skill in the nse of weapons, powers
of tracking, quick . discrimination of individual objects.
And under this head may fitly come inquiries concerning
some race-peculiarities of the aesthetic class, not at present
explicable. "While the remains from the Dordogne caves
show US' that their inhabitants, low as we must suppose
them to have been, could represent animals, both by
drawing and carving, with some degree of fidelity ; there
are existing races, probably higher in other respects, who
seem scarcely capable of recognizing pictorial representa-
tions. Similarly with the musical faculty. Almost or
quite wanting in some inferior races, we find it in other
races not of high grade, developed to an unexpected *
degree : instance the Negroes, some of whom are so
innately musical, that, as I have been told by a missionary
among them, the children in native schools when taught
European psalm-tunes, spontaneously sing seconds to them.
Whether any causes can be discovered for race peculiari-
ties of this kind, is a question of interest.

5 . Specialities of emotional nature . — These are worthy
of careful study, as being intimately related to social
phenomena — to the possibility of social progress, and
to the nature of the social structure. Among others to be •
noted there are— (a) Gregariousness or sociality— a trait in
the strength of which races differ widely : some, as the

I:

THE COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY OP MAN.

SG7

Mantras; feeing almost indifferent to social intercourse y
some feeing unable to dispense with it. Obviously the
degree of this desire for the presence of fellow-men, affects
greatly the formation of social groups, and consequently
nfluenees social progress. (5) Intolerance of restraint.
Men of some inferior types, as the Mapuche, are ungovern-
able j while those of other types, no higher in grade, not
only submit to restraint, but admire the persons exercising
it. These contrasted natures have to fee observed in con-
nexion with social evolution ; to tho early stages of which
they are respectively antagonistic and favourable. (c)
The desire for praise is a trait which, common to all races,
high and low, varies considerably in degree. There are
quite inferior races, as some of those in the Pacific States,
Whose members sacrifice without stint to gain the applause
which lavish generosity brings ; while, elsewhere, applause
is sought with less eagerness. Notice should be taken of
the connexion between this love of approbation and the
social restraints ; sine© it plays an important part in the
maintenance of them, (d) The acquisitive propensity.
This, too, is a character the degrees of which, and the
relations of which to the social state, have to be especially
noted. The desire for property grows along with the
possibility of gratifying it ; and this, extremely small
among the lowest men, increases as social development
goes on. With the advance from tribal property to family
property and individual property, the notion of private
right of possession gains definiteness, and the love of
acquisition strengthens. Each step towards an orderly
social state makes larger accumulations possible, and the
pleasures achievable by them more sure ; while the result-
ing encouragement to accumulate, leads to increase of
capital and to further progress. This action and re-action
of the sentiment and the social state, should be in every
case observed. ;

6. The altruistic sentiments . — Coming last, these are also

368

THE COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY OP MAN.

highest. The evolution of them, in the course of civilisa-
tion, shows us clearly the reciprocal influences of the social
unit and the social organism. On the one hand, there can
be no sympathy, nor any of the sentiments which sympathy
generates, unless there are fellow-beings around. On the
other hand, maintenance of union with follow-beings
depends in part on the presence of sympathy, and the
resulting restraints on conduct. Gregariousness or sociality
favours the growth of sympathy; increased sympathy con-
duces to closer sociality and a more stable social state; and
so, continuously, each increment of the one makes possible
a further increment of the other. Comparisons of the
altruistic sentiments resulting from sympathy, as exhibited
in different types of men and different social states, may
bo conveniently arranged under three heads — (a) Pity,
which should be observed as displayed towards offspring,
towards the sick and aged, and towards enemies, (b)
Generosity (duly discriminated from the love of display)
as shown in giving ; as shown in the relinquishment of
pleasures for the sake of others ; as shown by active
efforts on others’ behalf. The manifestations of this
sentiment, too, are to be noted in respect of their: range
— whether they are limited to relatives; whether they
extend only to those of the same society ; whether they
extend to those of other societies; and they are also to
be noted in connexion with the degree of providence—
whether they result from sudden impulses obeyed without
counting the cost, or go along with clear foresight of
the future sacrifices entailed. (c) Justice. This most
abstract of the altruistic sentiments is to bo considered
under aspects like those just named, as well as under
many other aspects— how far it is shown in regard to the
lives of others; how far in regard to their freedom; how
far in regard to their property ; how far in regard to their
various minor claims. And comparisons concerning this
highest sentiment should, beyond all others, be carried

.THE COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY OP MAE.

360

on along with comparisons of tile accompanying social
states, which it largely determines — tlie forms and actions:
of governments; the characters of laws; the relations
of classes.

Such, stated as briefly as consists with clearness, are the
leading divisions and subdivisions under which the Com-
parative Psychology of Man may be arranged. In going
rapidly over so wide a field, I have doubtless overlooked
much that should be included. Doubtless, too, various of
the inquiries named will branch, out into subordinate
inquiries well worth pursuing. Even as it is, however, the
programme is extensive enough to occupy numerous inves-
tigators, who may with advantage take separate divisions.

Though, after occupying themselves with primitive arts
and products, anthropologists have devoted their attention
mainly to the physical characters of the human races ; it
must, I think, be admitted that the study of these yields
in importance to the study of their psychical characters.
The general conclusions to which the first set of inquiries
may lead, cannot so much affect our views respecting the
highest classes of phenomena as can the general con-
clusions to which the second set may lead. A true theory
of the human mind vitally concerns us ; and systematic
comparisons of human minds, differing in their kinds and
grades, will help ns in forming a true theory. Knowledge
of the reciprocal relations between the characters of men
and the characters of the societies they form, must influ-
ence profoundly our ideas of political arrangements. When
the inter-dependence of individual natures and social
structures is understood, our conceptions of the changes
now taking place, and hereafter to take place, will bo
rectified. A comprehension of mental development as a
process of adaptation to social conditions, which are con-
tinually remoulding the mind and are again remoulded by
it, will conduce to a salutary consciousness of the remoter

370

THE COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY OP MAH.

effects produced "by institutions upon, character ; and will
check the grave mischiefs which ignorant legislation now
causes. Lastly, a right theory of mental ovolul ion as exhi-
bited by humanity at large, giving a; key, as it does> to the
evolution of the individual mind, must help to rationalize
our perverse methods of education; and so to raise intellec-
tual power and moral nature.

MR. MARTINEAU 0 N EVOLUTION.

[First published in The Contemporary Review, for June , 1872.]

The article by Mr, Martineau, in the April number of
the Contemporary Review , on “ The Place of Mind in Na-
ture, and Intuition of Man,” recalled to me a partially-
formed intention to deal with the chief criticisms which
have from time to time been made on the general doctrine
set forth in First Principles ; since, though not avowedly
directed against propositions asserted or implied in that
work, Mr. Martineau 5 s reasoning tells against them by
implication. The fulfilment of this intention I should,
however, have continued to postpone, had I not learned
that the arguments of Mr. Martineau are supposed by many
to be conclusive, and that, in the absence of replies, it will
be assumed that no replies can be made. It seems desir-
able, therefore, to notice these arguments at once — especially
as the essential ones may, I think, be effectually dealt with
in a comparatively small space.

The first definite objection which Mr. Martineau raises
is, that the hypothesis of G-eneral Evolution is powerless to
account even for the simpler orders of facts in the absence
of numerous different substances. He argues that were
matter all of one kind, no such phenomena as chemical

372 MR. MARTIN EAU ON EVOLUTION.

changes would he possible; and that, " in order to start
the world on its chemical career, you must enlarge its
capital and present it with an outfit of heterogeneous con-
stituents. Try, therefore, the effect of such a gift; fling
into the pre-existing cauldron the whole list of recognized
elementary substances, and give leave to their affinities to
work.” The intended implication obviously is, that there
must exist the separately-created elements before evolution
can begin.

Here, however, Mr. Martineau makes an assumption
which few, if any, chemists will commit themselves to, and
which many will distinctly deny. There are no "recognized
elementary substances,” if the expression means substances
known to be elementary. What chemists, for convenience,
call elementary substances, are merely substances which
they have thus far failed to decompose; but, bearing in
mind past experiences, they do not dare to say that they
are absolutely undecomposable. Water was taken to be
an element for more than two thousand years, and then
was proved to be a compound ; and, until Davy brought a
galvanic current to bear upon them, the alkalies and the
earths were supposed to be elements. So little true is it
that “ recognized elementary substances ” are supposed to
be absolutely elementary, that there has been much specu-
lation among chemists respecting the process of compound-
ing and recompoundiug by which they have been formed
out of some ultimate substance — some chemists having
supposed the atom of hydrogen to be the unit of composition,
but others having contended that the atomic weights of the
so-called elements are not thus interpretable. If I remem-
ber rightly, Sir John Herschel was one, among others,
who, some five-and-twenty years ago, threw out suggestions
respecting a system of compounding that might explain
these relations of the atomic weights.

What was at that time a suspicion has now become
practically a certainty. Spectrum-analysis yields results

ME. MAETOTEATJ ON EVOLUTION. 873

wholly irreconcilable with the assumption that the convene
tionally-named simple substances are really simple. Each
yields a spectrum having lines varying in number from
two to eighty or more, eveiy one of which implies the
intercepting of ethereal undulations of a certain order by
something oscillating in unison or in harmony with them.
Were iron absolutely elementary, it is not conceivable that
its atom could intercept ethereal undulations of eighty
different orders. Though it does not follow that its mole-
cule contains as many separate atoms as there are lines
in its spectrum, it must clearly be a complex molecule.
The evidence thus gained points to the conclusion that,
out of some primordial units, the so-called elements arise
by compounding and recompounding; just as by the com-
pounding and recompoundmg of so-called elements there
arise oxides, and acids, and salts.

And this hypothesis is entirely in harmony with the
phenomena of allotropy. Various substances, convention-
ally distinguished as simple, have several forms under
which they present quite different properties. The semi-
transparent, colourless, extremely active substance called
phosphorus may be so changed as to become opaque, dark
red, and inert. Like changes are known to occur in some
gaseous, non-metallic elements, as oxygen; and also in
metallic elements, as antimony. These total changes of
properties, brought about without any changes to be called
chemical, arc interpretable only as due to molecular re-
arrangements ; and, by showing that difference of property
is producible by difference of arrangement, they support
the inference otherwise to be drawn, that the properties of
different elements result from differences of arrangement
arising by the compounding and recompounding of ultimate
homogeneous units.

Thus Mr. MartineauV objection, which at best would
imply a turning of our ignorance of the nature of elements
into positive knowledge that they are simple, is, in fact, to

374

ME. MAKTINEAU our EVOLUTION.

be met by two sets of evidences, which imply that they
are compound. .

Mr. Martinoau next alleges that a fatal difficulty is put
in the way of the General Doctrine of Evolution by the
existence of a chasm between the living and the nob-living,
He says: — “But with all your enlargement of data, turn
them as you will, at the end of every passage which they
explore, the door of life is closed against them still.” Here
again our ignorance is employed to play the part of know-
ledge. The fact that we do not know distinctly how an
alleged transition has taken place, is transformed into the
assumption that no transition has taken place. We have,
in a more general shape, the argument which until lately
Was thought conclusive — the argument that because the
genesis of each species of creature had not been explained,
therefore each species must have been separately created.
Merely noting this, however, I go on to remark that
;! scientific discovery is day by day narrowing the chasm, or,

j to vary Mr. Martineau’s metaphor, opening the door.”

I Hot many years since, it was held as certain that the

>, chemical compounds distinguished as organic could hot

be formed artificially. How, more than a thousand organic
1 i! compounds have been formed artificially. Chemists have

discovered the art of building them up from the simpler
to the more complex, and do not doubt that they will
eventually produce the most complex. Moreover, the phe-
nomena attending isomeric change give a clue to those
movements which are the only indications we have of life
in its lowest forms. In various colloidal substances,
including the albuminoid, isomeric change is accompanied :
by contraction or expansion, and consequent motion • and,
in such primordial types as the Protogenes of Haeckel,
which do not differ in appearance from minute portions of
albumen, the observed motions are comprehensible as
accompanying isomeric changes caused by variations in

MR. MARTIN K ATT ON EVOLUTION,

875

surrounding physical actions. The probability of this
interpretation will bo soon on remembering the evidence
we have that, in the higher organisms, many functions are
essentially effected by isomeric changes from one to another
of the multitudinous forms which protein assumes.

Thus the reply to this objection is, first, that there is
going on from both sides a narrowing of the chasm
supposed to be impassable ; and, secondly, that, even were
the chasm not in course of being filled up, we should no
more be justified in therefore assuming a supernatural
commencement of life, than Kepler was justified in assuming
that there were guiding-spirits to keep the planets in their
orbits, because he could not see how else they were to be
kept in their orbits.

The third definite objection made by Mr. Martmean is
of kindred nature. The Hypothesis of Evolution is, he
thinks, met by the insurmountable difficulty that plant life
and animal life are absolutely distinct, “You cannot,”
he says, “ take a single step toward the deduction of
sensation and thought : neither at the upper limit do the
highest plants (the exogens) transcend themselves and
overbalance into animal existence; nor at the lower, grope
as you may among the sea-weeds and sponges, can you
persuade the sporules of the one to develop into the other.”

This is an extremely unfortunate objection to raise.
For, though there are no transitions from vegetal to animal
life at the places Mr. Marfcineau names, where, indeed, no
biologist would look for them ; yet the connexion between
the two great kingdoms of living things is so complete
that separation is now regarded as impossible. For a long
time naturalists endeavored to frame definitions such as
would, the one include all plants and exclude all animals,
and the other include all animals and exclude all plants.
But they have been so repeatedly foiled in the at tempt that
they have given it up. There is no chemical distinction

376

MB. MARTINEAU ON EVOLUTION.

which holds ; there is no structural distinction which
holds; there is no functional distinction which holds; there
is no distinction as to mode of existence which holds. Largo
groups of the simpler animals contain chlorophyll, and
decompose carbonic acid under the influence of light, as
plants do. Large groups of the simpler plants, as you
may observe in the diatoms from any stagnant pool, are
no less actively locomotive than the minute creatures
classed as animals seen along with them. Nay, among
these lowest types of living things, it is common for the
life to he now predominantly animal and presently to
become predominantly vegetal. The very name zoospores,
given to germs of alga, which for a while swim about
actively by means of cilia, and presently settling down
grow into plant-forms, is given because of this conspicuous
community of nature. So complete is this community of
nature that for some time past many naturalists have
wished to establish for these lowest types a sub-kingdom,
intermediate between the animal and the vegetal : the
reason against this course being, however, that the
difficulty crops up afresh at any assumed, places where
this intermediate sub-kingdom may be supposed to join
the other two.

Thus the assumption on which Mr. Martineau proceeds
is diametrically opposed to the conviction of naturalists
in general.

Though I do not perceive that it is specifically stated,
there appears to be tacitly implied a fourth difficulty of
allied kind-— the difficulty that there is no possibility of
transition from, life of the simplest kind to mind. Mr.
Martineau says, indeed, that there can be ff \vitli only vital
resources, as in the vegetable world, no beginning of
mind:” apparently leaving it to be inferred that in the
animal world the resources are such as to make the
“ beginning of mind ” comprehensible. If, however, instead

MB. MARTINS AH ON EVOLUTION.

377

of leaving it a latent inference, lie had distinctly asserted
a chasm between mind and bodily life, for which there is
certainly quite as much reason as for asserting a chasm
between animal life and vegetal life, the difficulties in his
way would have been no less inalterable.

For those lowest forms of irritability in the animal
kingdom which, 1 suppose, Mr. Mar tineau refers to as the
“ beginning of mind," are not distinguishable from the
irritability which plants display: they in no greater degree
imply consciousness. If the sudden folding of a sensitive-
plant’s leaf when touched, or the spreading out of the
stamens in a wild-cistus when gently brushed, is to be
considered a vital action of a purely physical kind ; then so
too must be considered the equally slow contraction of a
polype’s tentacles. And yet, from this simple motion of
an animal of low type, we may pass by insensible stages
through ever-complicating forms of actions, with their
accompanying signs of feeling and intelligence, until we
reach the highest.

Even apart from the evidence derived from the ascending
grades of animals up from zoophytes, as they are signifi-
cantly named, it needs only to observe the evolution of a
single animal to see that there does not exist any break
or chasm between the life which shows no mind and the
life which shows mind. The yelk of an egg which the
cook has just broken, not only yields ho sign of mind, but
yields no sign of life. It does not respond to a stimulus
as much even as many plants do. Had the egg, instead
of being broken by the cook, been left under’ the hen for
a certain time, the yelk would have passed by infinitesimal
gradations through a series of forms ending in the chick ;
and by similarly infinitesimal gradations would have arisen
those functions which end in the chick breaking its shell ;
and which, when it gets out, show themselves in running
about, distinguishing and picking up food, and .squeaking ••
if hurt. When did the feeling begin f and how did there

378 MB. MARTIN® ATJ ON EVOLUTION.

come into existence that power of perception which the
chick's actions show? Should it bo objected that the
chick's actions are mainly automatic, I will not dwell on
the fact that, though they are largely so, the chick mani-
festly has feeling and therefore consciousness ; but I will
accept the objection, and propose that instead we take the
human being. The course of development before birth is
just of the same general kind ; and similarly, at a certain
stage, begins to be accompanied by reflex movements. At
birth there is displayed an amount of mind certainly not
greater than that of the chick : there is no power of
running from danger-— no power of distinguishing and
picking up food. If we say the chick is unintelligent,
we must certainly say the infant is unintelligent. And yet
from the unintelligence of tlie infant to the intelligence of
the adult, there is an advance by steps so Binall that on no
day is the amount of mind shown, appreciably different
from that shown on preceding and succeeding days.

Thus the tacit assumption that there exists a break, is
not simply gratuitous, but is negatived by the most
obvious facts.

Certain of the words aud phrases used in explaining
that particular part of the Doctrine of Evolution which
deals with the origin of species, are commented upon by
Mr, Marfineau as having implications justifying his view.
Let us consider his comments.

He says that competition is not- an “original power,
which can of itself do anything;” further, that “it cannot
act except in the presence of some possibility of a better or
worse j v and that this “ possibility of a better or worse ”
implies a “ world pre-arranged for progress,” ff a directing
Will intent upon the good.” Had Mr. Martineau looked
more closely into the matter,: he would have found that,
though the words and phrases he quotes are used fern con-
venience, the conceptions they imply are not at all essential

MR. MAlll’INEAU ON EVOLUTION. 879

to the doctrine. Under its rigorously' -scientific form, the
doctrine is expressible in purely-physical terms, which
neither imply competition nor imply better and worse.*
Beyond this indirect mistake there is a direct mistake.
Mr. Martmeau speaks of the ‘‘survivorship of the better,”
as though that were the statement of the law ; and then
adds that the alleged result cannot be inferred “ except on
the assumption that whatever is better is stronger too”
But the words he here uses are his own words, not the
words of those he opposes. The law is the survival of the
fittest. Probably, in substituting “better” for “fittest,”
Mr. Martineau did not suppose that he was changing the
meaning; though I dare say he perceived that the mean-
ing of the word “fittest” did not suit his argument so
well. Had he examined the facts, he would have found
that the law is not the survival of the “better ” or the
“ stronger,” if we give to those words any thing like their
ordinary meanings. It is the survival of those which are
constitutionally fittest to thrive under the conditions in
which they are placed; and very often, that which,
humanly speaking, is inferiority, causes the survival.
Superiority, whether in size, strength, activity, or sagacity,'
is, other things equal, at the cost of diminished fertility ;
and where the life led by a species does not demand these
higher attributes, the species profits by decrease of them,
and accompanying increase of fertility. This is the reason
why there occur so many cases of retrograde metamor-
phosis — this is the reason why parasites, internal and
external, are so commonly degraded forms of higher types.
Survival of the “better” does not cover these cases, though
survival of the “fittest” does; and as I am responsible
for the phrase, I suppose I am competent to say that
the word “fittest” was chosen for this reason. When
it is remembered that these cases outnumber all others—

* Principles of Biology, §§ 159—168.

m

MR, MARTINEAU ON EVOLUTION.

that there are more species of parasites than there are
species of all other animals put together- — -it will be seen
that the expression “survivorship of the better >} is wholly
inappropriate, and the argument Mr. Martineau bases upon
it quite untenable. Indeed, if, in place of those adjust-
ments of the human sense-organs, which ho so eloquently
describes as implying pre-arrangement, Mr, Martineau had
described the countless elaborate appliances which enable
parasites to torture animals immeasurably superior to them,
and which, from his point of view, no less imply pre-
arrangement, I think the notes of admiration which end his
descriptions would not have seemed to him so appropriate.

One more word there is from the intrinsic meaning of
which Mr. Martineau deduces what appears a powerful
argument — -the word HJuolution itself. He says:—

“ It moans, to unfold from within ; and it is taken from the history of the
seed or embryo of living natures. And what is the sued but a casket of
pre-arranged futurities, with its whole contents prospective, settled to be
what they are by reference to ends still in the distance?”

Now, this criticism would have been very much to the
point did the -word Evolution truly express the process it
names. If this process, as scientifically defined, really
involved that conception which the word evolution was
originally designed to convey, the implications would be
those Mr. Martineau alleges. But, unfortunately for him,
the word, having been in possession of the field before the
process was understood, has been adopted merely because
displacing it by another word seemed impracticable. And
this adoption of it has been joined with a caution against
misunderstandings, arising from its unfitness. Here is a
part of the caution : — “ Evolution lias other meanings, some
of which are incongruous with, and some even directly
opposed to, the meaning here given to it. . . . The anti-
thetical word, Involution, would much more truly express
the nature of the process.; and would, indeed, describe
better the secondary characters of the process which we

MR-. MARTINEAU ON EVOLUTION.

381

shall Lave to deal with presently.”* So that the mean-
ings which the word involves, and which Mr. Martineau
regards as fatal to the hypothesis, are already repudiated
as not belonging to the hypothesis.

And now, having dealt with the essential objections
raised by Mr. Martineau to the Hypothesis of Evolution
as it is presented under that purely scientific form which
generalizes the process of things, firstly as observed and
secondly as inferred from certain ultimate principles, let
me go on to examine that form of the Hypothesis which
he propounds — Evolution as determined by Mind and Will
— Evolution as pre-arranged by a Divine Actor. For Mr.
Martineau apparently abandons the primitive theory of
creation by “ fiat of Almighty Will ”, and also the theory
of creation by manufacture — by “ a contriving and adapt-
ing power,” and seems to believe in evolution : requiring*
only that “an originating Mind ” shall be tahon as its
antecedent. Let us ask, first, in what relation Mr.
Martineau conceives the “originating Mind” to stand to
the evolving Universe, From some passages it is inferable
that he considers the “presence of mind” to be every-
where needful. He says : — '

“It is impossible to work the theory of Evolution upwards from the
bottom. If all force is to be conceived as One, its type must be looked for
in the highest and all-comprehending term; and Mind must be conceived
as there, and as divesting itself of some speciality at each step of its descent
to a lower stratum of law, till represented at the base under the guise of
simple Dynamics.”

This seems to be an unmistakable assertion that, wherever'
Evolution is going on. Mind is then and there behind it.
At the close of the argument, however, a quite different
conception is implied. Mr. Martineau says : —

“If the Divine Idea will not retire at the bidding of our speculative
science, but retains its place, it is natural to ask, What is its relation to

First Principles, second edition, § 97.

382

MR. MARTINEATJ ON EVOLUTION,

the scries of so-called Forces in the ■world ? But the question is too 'large
sahd deep to ho answered here. Let it suffice to say, that there need not be
any overruling of these forces by the Will of God, so that the supernatural
should disturb the natural; or any supplementing of them, so that lie should
fill up their deficiencies. Bather is liis thought related to them as, in man,
the mental force is related to all below it.”

It would take too much space to deal fully with the
various questions which this last passage raises. There is.
the question— -Whence coino these “ Forces / 3 spoken of as
separate from the “ Will of God” — did they pre-exist?
Then what becomes of the Divine Power ? Do they exist
by the Divine Will ? Then what kind of nature is that by
which they act apart from the Divine Will ? Again, there
is the question — How do these deputy-forces co-operate in.
each particular phenomenon, if the presiding Will is not
there present to control them ? Either an organ which
develops into fitness for its function, develops by the co-
operation of these forces nnder the direction of Mind then
present, or it so develops in the absence of Mind. If it
develops in the absence of Mind, the hypothesis is given
up; and if the “originating Mind” is required to be then
and there present, we must suppose a particular providence
to be present in each particular organ of each particular
creature throughout the universe. Once more there is
the question-— if “ His thought is related to them [these
Forces] as, in Man, the mental force is related to all
below it / 5 how can “ His thought” be regarded as the
cause of Evolution? In man the mental force is related
to the forces below it neither as a creator of them nor as a
regulator of them, save in a very limited way : the greater
part of the forces present in man, both structural and
functional, defy the mental force absolutely. Hay, more,
it needs but to injure a nerve to see that the power of the
mental force over the physical forces is dependent on
conditions which are themselves physical; and one who
lakes morphia in mistake for magnesia, discovers that the

MR. MARTINEAU OK EVOLUTION. 888

power of the physical forces over the mental is uncon-
ditioned by any thing mental. ■

'•y Hot' dwelling on these questions, however, 1 will merely
draw attention to the entire incongruity of this conception
with the previous conception which X have quoted. Assum-
ing that, when the choice is pressed on him, Mr. Martineau
will choose the first, which alone has any thing like do fea-
sibility, let us go on to ask how far Evolution is made more
comprehensible by postulating Mind, universally immanent,
as its cause.

In metaphysical controversy, many of the propositions
propounded and accepted as quite believable, are absolutely
•inconceivable. There is a perpetual confusing of actual
ideas with what are nothing but pseud-ideas. No distinc-
tion is made between propositions that contain real thoughts,
and propositions that are only the forms of thoughts. A
thinkable proposition is one of which the two terms can be
brought together in consciousness under the relation said, to
mist between them. But very often, when the subject of a
proposition has been thought of as something known, and
when the predicate has been thought of as something
known, and when the relation alleged between them
has been thought of as a known relation, it is supposed
that the proposition itself has been thought. The thinking
separately of the elements of a proposition is mistaken for
the thinking of them in the combination which the propo-
sition affirms. And hence it continually happens that pro-
positions which cannot be rendered into thought at all, are
supposed to be not only thought but believed. The propo-
sition that Evolution is caused by Mind is one of this nature;
The two terms are separately intelligible ; but they can be
regarded in the relation of effect and cause only so long as
no attempt is made to put them together in this relation.

The only thing which any one knows as Mind is the series
of his own states of consciousness; and if he thinks of any
mind other than his own, he can think of it only in terms

884

MR. MAKTINEATT ON EVOLUTION-

derived from his own. If I am asked to frame a notion of
Mind divested of all those structural traits under which
alone I am conscious of mind in myself, I cannot do it. I
know nothing of thought save as carried on in ideas origi-
nally traceable to tho effects wrought by objects and forces
bn me. A mental act is an unintelligible phrase if I am
not to regard it as an act in which states of consciousness
are severally known as like other states in the series that
has gone by, and in which the relations between them are
severally known as like past relations in the series. If,
then, I have to conceive Evolution as caused by an “ origi-
nating Mind,” I must conceive this Mind as having attri-
butes akin to those of the only mind I know, and without"
which I cannot conceive Mind at all.

I will not dwell on the many incongruities hence resulting,
by asking how the “ originating Mind” is to be thought of
as having states produced by things objective to it; as
discriminating among these states, and classing them as
like and unlike ; and as preferring one objective result to
another. I will simply ask — What happens if we ascribe
to the “originating Mind ” the character absolutely essen-
tial to the conception of Mind, that it consists of a series of
states of consciousness ? Put a series of states of conscious-
ness as cause, and the evolving Universe as effect, and then
endeavor to see the last as Bowing from the first. I find it
possible to imagine in some dim way a series of states of
consciousness serving as antecedent to any one of the move-
ments I see going on; for my own states of consciousness
are often indirectly the antecedents to such movements.
But how if I attempt to think of such a series as antecedent
to all actions throughout the Universe— -to the motions of
the multitudinous stars through .space, to the revolutions of
all their planets round them, to the gyrations of all these
planets on their axes, to tho infinitely-multiplied physical
processes going on in each of these suns and planets ? I
cannot think of a single series of states of consciousness as

ME. MARTINEAT7 ON EVOLUTION.

885

causing even the relatively small group of actions going on
over the Earth’s surface. I cannot think of it even as
antecedent to all the various •winds and the dissolving clouds
they bear, to the currents of oil the rivers, and the grinding
actions of all the glaciers; still less can I think of it as an-
tecedent to the infinity of processes simultaneously going
on in all the plants that cover the globe, from scattered
polar lichens to crowded tropical palms, and. in all the
millions of quadrupeds that roam among them, and the
millions of millions of insects that buzz about them. Even
to a single small set of these multitudinous terrestrial
changes, I cannot conceive as antecedent a single series of
' states of consciousness — cannot, for instance, think of it as
causing the hundred thousand breakers that are at this
instant curling over on the shores of England. How, then,
is it possible for me to conceive an a originating Mind,”
which I must represent to myself as a single series of
states of consciousness, working the infinitely-multiplied
sets of changes simultaneously going on in worlds too
numerous to count, dispersed throughout a space that baffles
imagination?

If, to account for this infinitude of physical changes
everywhere going on, “ Mind must be conceived, as there ”
“under the guise of simple Dynamics,” then the reply is
that, to be so conceived, Mind must be divested of all attri-
butes by which it is distinguished ; and that, when thus
divested of its distinguishing attributes, the conception
disappears — the word Mind stands . for a blank. If Mr.
Martineau takes refuge in the entirely different and, as it
seems to me, incongruous hypothesis of something like a
plurality of minds — if he accepts, as lie seems to do, the
doctrine that you cannot explain Evolution ■“ unless among
your primordial elements you scatter already the germs of
Mind as well as the inferior elements ” — if the insuperable
difficulties I have just pointed out are to be met by assuming
a local series of states of consciousness for each phenomenon,

SS6

ME. MAETINEAU OH EVOLUTION.

then we are obviously carried back to something' like the
alleged fetickistic notion, with the difference only, that the
assumed spiritual agencies are indefinitely multiplied.

Clearly, therefore, the proposition that an “ originating
Mind ” is the cause of Evolution, is a proposition that can
be entertained so long only as no attempt is made to unite
in thought its two terras in the alleged relation. That
it should be accepted as a matter of faith, may be a de-
fensible position, provided good cause is shown why it
should be so accepted ; but that it should be accepted as
a matter of Understanding — as a statement making the
order of the universe comprehensible — is a quite indefen-
sible position.

Here let me guard myself against a misinterpretation
very likely to be put upon the foregoing arguments ;
especially by those who have read the Essay to which
they reply. The statements of that Essay carry the im-
plication that all who adhere to the hypothesis it combats,
imagine they have solved the mystery of things when they
have shown the processes of Evolution to be naturally
caused. Mr. Martineau tacitly represents them as believ-
ing that, when every thing has keen interpreted in terms
of Matter and Motion, nothing remains to be explained.
This, however, is by no means the fact. The Doctrine of
Evolution, under its purely scientific form, does not involve
Materialism, though its opponents .persistently represent
it as doing so. Indeed, among adherents of it who are
friends of mine, there are those who speak of the Material-:
ism of Bueckner and his school, with a contempt certainly
not less than that felt by Mr. Martineau. To show how
anti-materialistic my own view is, I may, perhaps, without
impropriety, quote some out of many passages which I
have written on the question elsewhere :

“ Hence though o i the two it seems easier to translate so-called Matter
into so-called Spirit, than to translate so-called Spirit into so-called Matter

MR. MAETINEAU ON EVOLUTION, 887

(which latter is, indeed, wholly impossible) ; yet no translation can carry us
beyond our symbols,” *

And again :

“ See then oar predicament. We can think of Matter only in terms of
Mind. We can think of Mind only in terms of Matter. When we have
pushed our explorations of the first to the uttermost limit, we are referred to
the second for a final answer; and., when we have got the final answer of the
second, we are referred, back to the first for an interpretation of it. We find
the value of "as in terms of y ; then we find the value of y'iti terms of n:;
and so on we may continue forever without coming nearer to a solution.
The antithesis of subject and object, never to be transcended while conscious-
ness lasts, renders impossible all knowledge of that Ultimate Reality in which
subject and object are united.” f

It is thus, I think, manifest that the difference "between
Mr. Martineau’s view and the view he opposes is by no
means so wide as he makes it appear; and further, it
seems to me that such difference as exists is rather the
reverse of that indicated by his exposition. Briefly ex-
pressed, the difference is that, where he thinks there is no
mystery, the doctrine he combats recognizes a mystery.
Speaking for myself only, I may say that, agreeing entirely
with Mr, Martin eau in repudiating the materialistic inter-
pretation as utterly futile, I differ from him simply in this,
that while he says he has found another interpretation, I
confess that I cannot find any interpretation; while ho
holds that he can understand the Power which is mani-
fested in things, I feel obliged to admit, after many fail-
ures, that I cannot understand it. So that, in presence of
the transcendent problem which the universe presents, Mr.
Martineau regards the human intellect as capable, and I as
incapable. This contrast does not appear to me of the kind
which his Essay tacitly asserts. If there is such a thing
as the “ pride of Science/ 5 it is obviously exceeded by the
pride of Theology. I fail to perceive humility in the belief
that the human mind is able to comprehend that which is
behind appearances ; and I do not see how piety is espe-

* Principles of Psychology, second edition, vol. L, § OS.
f Ibid., § 272.

S88

UK. MARTIN 32 AU ON EVOLUTION.

cially exemplified in the assertion that the Universe contains
no mode of existence higher in Nature than that which is
present to us in consciousness. On the contrary, 1 think it
quite a defensible proposition that humility is better shown
by a confession of incompetence to grasp in thought the
Cause of all things ; and that the religious sentiment may
find its highest sphere in the belief that the Ultimate Power
is no more representable in terms of human consciousness
than human consciousness is representable in terms of a
plant’s functions.

THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

[First published m Tlie Nineteenth Century, for April and

Map, 1886 .]

I.

Within the recollection of men now in middle life, opinion
concerning the derivation of animals and plants was in
a chaotic state. Among the unthinking there was tacit
belief in creation by miracle, which formed an essential
part of the creed of Christendom ; and among the thinking
there were two parties, each of which held an indefensible
hypothesis. Immensely the larger of these parties, includ-
ing nearly all whose scientific culture gave weight to their
judgments, though not accepting literally the theologically-
orthodox doctrine, made a compromise between that doctrine
and the doctrines which geologists had established j while
opposed to them were some, mostly having no authority in
science, who held a doctrine which was heterodox both
theologically and scientifically. Professor Huxley, in his
lecture on “ The Coming of Age of the Origin of Species,”
remarks concerning the first of these parties as follows;*—

“ One-and-twenty years ago, in spite of the work commenced by Hutton
and continued with rare skill and patience by Lyell, the dominant view of the
past history of the earth was catastrophic. Great and sudden physical
revolutions, wholesale creations and extinctions of living beings, were the
ordinary machinery of the geological epic brought into fashion by the mis-
applied genius of Cuvier. It was gravely maintained and taught that the
end of every geological epoch was signalised by a cataclysm, by which every
living being on the globe was swept away, to be replaced by a brand-new
creation when the world returned to quiescence. A scheme of nature which

390

THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

appeared to be modelled on the likeness of a succession of rubbers of whist,
at the end of each of which the players upset the table and called for a new
pack, did not seem to shock anybody.

I may be wrong, but I doubt if, at the present time, there is a single
responsible representative of these opinions left. The progress of scientific
geology has elevated the fundament principle of uniformitarianism. that the
explanation of the past is to be sought in the study of the present, into the
position of an axiom ; and the wild speculations of the catastrophists, to
which we all listened with respect a quarter of a century ago, would hardly
find a single patient hearer at the present day.”

Of the party above referred to as not satisfied with this
conception described by Professor Huxley, there were two
classes. The great majority were admirers of the Vestiges
of the Natural History of Creation — a work which, while if
sought to show that organic evolution has taken place,
contended that the cause of organic evolution, is “an
impulse” supernaturally " imparted to the forms of life,
advancing them, ... through grades of organization.”
Being nearly all very inadequately acquainted with the
facts, those who accepted the view set forth in the Vestiges
were ridiculed by the well-instructed for being satisfied
with evidence, much of which was either invalid or easily
cancelled by counter-evidence, and at the same time they
exposed themselves to the ridicule of the more philosophical
for being content with a supposed explanation which was
in reality no explanation: the alleged "impulse” to advance
giving us no more help in; understanding the facts than
does Nature’s alleged "abhorrence of a vacuum” help
us to understand the ascent of water in a pump. The
remnant, forming the second of these classes, was very
small. While rejecting this mere verbal solution, which,
both Dr. Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck had shadowed
forth in other language, there were some few who, rejecting
also the hypothesis indicated by both Dr. Darwin and
Lamarck, that the promptings of desires or wants produced
growths of the parts subserving them, accepted the single
vera causa assigned by these writers — the modification of
structures resulting from modification of functions. They

THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION. 301

.recognized as tlie sole process in organic development, the
adaptation of parts and powers consequent on the effects of
use and disuse — that continual moulding and re-moulding of
organisms to suit their circumstances, which, is brought
about by direct converse with such circumstances.

But while this cause accepted by these few is a true
cause/ since unquestionably during the life of the Indi-
vidual organism changes of function produce changes of:
structure; and while it is a tenable hypothesis that
changes of structure so produced are inheritable; yet it was
manifest to those not prepossessed, that this cause cannot
with reason be assigned for the greater part of the facts.
Though in plants there are some characters which may not
irrationally be ascribed to the direct effects of modified
functions consequent on modified circumstances, yet the
majority of the traits presented by plants are not to bo
thus explained. It is impossible that the thorns by which
a briar is in large measure defended against browsing
animals, can have been developed and moulded by the
continuous exercise of their protective actions ; for in tho
first place, the great majority of the thorns are never
touched at all, and, in the second place, wo have no ground
whatever for supposing that those which are touched are
thereby made to grow, and to .take those shapes which
render them efficient. Plants which are rendered uneatable
by the tlrick woolly coatings of their leaves, cannot have
had these coatings produced hy any process of reaction
against the action of enemies; for there is no imaginable
reason why, if one part of a plant is eaten, the rest should
thereafter begin to develop the hairs on its surface. By
what direct effect of function on structure, can the shell of
a nut have been evolved ? Or how can those seeds which
contain essential oils, rendering them unpalatable to birds,
have been made to secrete such essential oils by these
actions of birds which they restrain ? Or how can tho
delicate plumes borne by some seeds, and giving tho wind

302 THE FACTORS ' OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

p cover to waft them to. new stations, be due to any imme-
diate influences of surrounding conditions t Clearly in these
and in countless other cases, change of structure cannot
have been directly caused by change of function. So
is it with animals to a large extent, if not to the same
extent. Though we have proof that by rough usage the
dermal layer may be so excited as to produce a greatly
thickened epidermal layer, sometimes quite horny ; and
though it is a feasible hypothesis that an effect of this kind
persistently produced may be inherited; yet no such cause
can explain the carapace of the turtle, the armour of the
armadillo, or the imbricated covering of the manis. The
skins of these animals are no more exposed to habitual
hard usage than are those of animals covered by hair.
The strange excrescences which distinguish the heads of
the hornbills, cannot possibly have arisen from any reaction
against the action of surrounding forces ; for even were
they clearly protective, there is no reason to suppose that
the heads of these birds need protection more than the
heads of other birds. If, led by the evidence that in
animals the amount of covering is in some cases affected by
the degree of exposure, it were admitted as imaginable that
the development of feathers from preceding dermal growths
had resulted from that extra nutrition caused by extra
superficial circulation, we should still be without explana-
tion of the structure of a feather. Nor should we have any
clue to the specialities of feathers — the crests of various
birds, the tails sometimes so enormous, the curiously placed
plumes of the bird of paradise, <&c., &a. Still more
obviously impossible is it to explain as due to use or disuse
the colours of animals. No direct adaptation to function
could have produced the blue protuberances on a mandril’s
face, or the striped hide of a tiger, or the gorgeous plumage
of a kingfisher, or the eyes in a peacock’s tail, or the
multitudinous patterns of insects’ wings. One single case,
that; of a deer’s horns, might alone have sufficed to show

THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

308

liow insufficient was the assigned cause. Baring their
growth, a deer’s horns are not used at all; and when,
having been cleared of the dead skin and dried-up blood-
vessels covering them, they are ready for use, they are
nerveless and non-vasculaiy and hence are incapable of
undergoing any changes of structure consequent on changes
of function.

Of these few then, who rejected the belief described by
Professor Huxley, and who, espousing the belief in a
continuous evolution, had to account for this evolution, it
must be said that though the cause assigned was a true
cause, yet, even admitting that it operated through successive
generations, it left unexplained the greater part of the facts.
Having been myself one of these, few, I look back with
surprise at the way in which the facts which were congruous
with the espoused view monopolized consciousness and kept
out the facts which were incongruous with it — conspicuous
though many of them were. The mis judgment was pot
mmatural. Finding it impossible to accept any doctrine
which implied a breach in the uniform course of natural
causation, and, by implication, accepting as unquestionable
the origin and development of all organic forms by
accumulated modifications naturally caused, that which
appeared to explain certain classes of these modifications,
was supposed to be capable of explaining the rest : the
tendency being to assume that these would eventually be
similarly accounted for, though it was not clear how.

Returning from this parenthefchic remark, we are con-
cerned here chiefly to remember that, as said at the outset,
there existed thirty years ago, no tenable theory about
the genesis of living things. Of the two alternative beliefs,
neither would bear critical examination.

Out of this dead lock -we were released— -in large measure,
though not I believe entirely— by the Origin of Species.
That work brought into view a further factor; or rather,

394

THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

such factor, recognized as in operation by liere and there
an observer (as pointed out by Mr. Darwin in bis intro-
duction to the second edition), was by him for the first time
seen to have 'played so immense a part in the genesis of
plants and animals.

Though laying* myself open to the charg-e of telling a
thrice-told tale, I feel obliged here to indicate briefly the
several great classes of facts which Mr. Darwin’s hypothesis
explains; because otherwise that which follows would
scarcely be understood. And I feel the less hesitation in
doing* this because the hypothesis which it replaced, not
very widely known at any time, has of late so completely
dropped into the background, that the majority of readers
are scarcely aware of its existence, and do not therefore
understand the relation between Mr. Darwin’s successful
interpretation and the preceding unsuccessful attempt at
interpretation. Of these classes of facts, four chief ones
may be here distinguished.

In the first place, such adjustments as those exemplified
above are made comprehensible. Though it is inconceiv-
able that a structure like that of the pitcher-plant could
have been produced by accumulated effects of function
on structure ,* yet it is conceivable that successive selections
of favourable variations might have produced it ; and the
like holds of the no less remarkable appliance of the
Venus’s Ely-trap, or the still more astonishing one of that
water-plant by which infant-fish are captured. Though it is
impossible to imagine how, by direct influence of increased
use, such dermal appendages as a porcupine’s quills could
have been developed ; yet, profiting as the members of a
species otherwise defenceless might do by the stiffness of
their hairs, rendering them unpleasant morsels to eat, it is
a feasible supposition that from successive survivals of
individuals thus defended in the greatest degrees, and the
consequent growth in successive generations of hairs into
bristles, bristles into spines, spines into quills (for all these

THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

895

are homologous), this change could have arisen. In 1 ike
manner, the odd inflatable bag of the bladder-nosed seal, the
curious fishing-rod with its worm-like appendage carried on
the head of the lophius or angler, the spurs on the wings of
certain birds, the weapons of the sword-fish and saw-fish,
the wattles of fowls, and numberless such peculiar struc-
tures, though by no possibility explicable as due to effects
of use or disuse, are explicable as resulting from natural
selection operating in one or other way.

In the second place, while showing us how there have
arisen countless modifications in the forms, structures,
and colours of each part, Mr. Darwin has shown us how,
by the establishment of favourable variations, there may
arise now parts. Though the first step in the production
of horns on the heads of various herbivorous animals, may
Have been the growth of callosities consequent on the
habit of butting — such callosities thus functionally initiated
being afterwards developed in the most advantageous ways
by selection ; yet no explanation can be thus given of the
sudden appearance of a duplicate set of horns, as occasion-
ally happens in sheep: an addition which, where it proved
beneficial, might readily be made a permanent trait by
natural selection. Again, the modifications which follow use
and disuse can by no possibility account for changes in the
numbers of vertebrae; but after recognizing' Spontaneous;
or rather fortuitous, variation as a factor, we can see
that where an additional vertebra, hence resulting (as
in some pigeons) proves beneficial, survival of the fittest
may make it a constant character; and there may, by
further like additions, be produced extremely long strings
of vertebrae, such as snakes show ns. Similarly with the
mammary glands. It is not an unreasonable supposition
that by the effects of greater or less function, inherited
through successive generations, these may be enlarged or
diminished in size; but it is out of the question to allege
such a cause for changes m their numbers. There is no

396 THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

imaginable explanation of these save the establishment by
inheritance of spontaneous variations,, such as are known
to occur in the human race.

So too, in the third place, with certain alterations in the
connexions of parts. According- to the greater or smaller
demands made on this or that limb, the muscles moving
it may he augmented or diminished in bulk; and,- if there
is inheritance of changes so wrought, the limb may, in
course of generations, be rendered larger or smaller. But
changes in the arrangements or attachments of muscles
cannot be thus accounted for. It is found, especially at
the extremities, that the relations of tendons to bones and
to one another are not always the same. Variations in
their modes of connexion may occasionally prove advan-
tageous, and may thus become established. Here again,
then we have a class of structural changes to which
Mr. Darwin’s hypothesis gives us the key, and to which
there is no other key.

Once more there are the phenomena of mimicry. Per-
haps in a more striking way than any others, these show
how traits which seem inexplicable are explicable as due
to the more frequent survival of individuals that have
varied in favourable ways. We are enabled to understand
such marvellous simulations as those of the leaf-insect,
those of beetles which “ resemble glittering dew-drops upon
the leaves ; ” those of caterpillars which, when asleep,
stretch themselves out so as to look like twigs. And we
are shown how there have arisen still more astonishing
imitations — those of one insect by another. As Mr. Bates
has proved, there are cases in which a species of butter-
fly, rendered so unpalatable to insectivorous birds by its
disagreeable taste that they will not catch it, is simulated
in its colours and markings by a species which is struc-
turally quite different — so simulated that even a practised
entomologist is liable to be deceived : the explanation being-
that an original slight resemblance, leading to occasional

THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION. 397.

mistakes on the part of birds, -was increased generation
after generation by the more frequent escape of the most-
like individuals, until the likeness became thus great.

But now, recognizing in full this process brought into
clear view by Mr. Darwin, and traced out by him with so
much care and skill, can we conclude that, taken alone, it
accounts for organic evolution ? Has the natural selection
of favourable variations been the sole factor ? On critically
examining the evidence, we shall find reason to think that
it by no means explains all that has to be explained.
Omitting for the present any consideration of a factor
which may be distinguished as primordial, it may be con-
tended that the above-named factor alleged by Dr. Erasmus
Darwin and by Lamarck, must be recognized as a co-
operator. Utterly inadequate to explain the major part of
the facts as is the hypothesis of the inheritance of func-
tionally-produced modifications, yet there is a minor part
of the facts, very extensive though less, which must be
ascribed to this cause.

When discussing the question more than twenty years
ago {Principles of Biology, § 166), I instanced the decreased
size of the jaws in the civilized races of mankind, as a
change not accounted for by the natural selection of
favourable variations ; since no one of the decrements by
which, in thousands of years, this reduction has been
effected, could have given to an individual in which it
occurred, such advantage as would cause his survival,
either through diminished cost of local nutrition or dimi-
nished weight to be carried. I did not then exclude, as I
might have done, two other imaginable causes. It may
be said that there is some organic correlation between
increased size of brain and decreased size of jaw : Camper’s
doctrine of the facial angle being referred to in proof.
But this argument may be met by pointing to the many
examples of small-j awed people who are also small-brained,

SOS TUB FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

and by citing not infrequent eases of individuals remark-
able for their mental powers, and at the same time
distinguished by jaws not less than the average but
greater. Again, if sexual selection be named as a possible
cause, there is the reply that, even supposing such slight
diminution of j aw as took place in a single generation to
have been an attraction, yet the other incentives to choice
on the part of men have been too many and great to allow
this one to weigh in an adequate degree ; while, during
the greater portion of the period, choice on the part of
women has scarcely operated : in earlier times they were
stolen or bought, and in later times mostly coerced by
parents. Thus, reconsideration of the facts does not show
me the invalidity of the conclusion drawn, that this
decrease in size of jaw can have had no other cause than
continued inheritance of those diminutions consequent
on diminutions of function, implied by the use of
selected and well-prepared food. Here, however, my
chief purpose is to add an instance showing, even
more clearly, the connexion between change of func-
tion and change of structure. This instance, allied in
nature to the other, is presented by those varieties, or
rather sub- varieties, of dogs, which, having been household
pets, and habitually fed on soft food, have not been called
on to use their jaws in tearing and crunching, and have
been but rarely allowed to use them in catching prey and in
fighting. Ho inference can be drawn from the sizes of the
jaws themselves, which, in these dogs, have probably been
shortened mainly: by selection. To get direct proof of the
decrease of the muscles concerned in closing the jaws or
biting, would require a series of observations very difficult
to make. But *it is not difficult to get indirect proof of this
decrease by looking at the bony structures with which
these muscles are connected. Examination of the skulls
of sundry indoor dogs contained in the Museum of the
College of Surgeons, proves the relative smallness of such

THE EACTOKS Off OEGAHIC EVOLUTION. 300

parts, The only png-dog’s skull is -that of an individual
not perfectly adult; and though its traits are quite to the
point they cannot with safety be taken as evidence. The.
skull of a toy-terrier has much restricted areas of insertion
for the temporal muscles; has weak zygomatic arches ; and
■has extremely small attachments for the masseter muscles.
Still more significant is the evidence furnished by the skull
of a King Charles’s spaniel* which, if we . allow three years
to a generation, and bear in mind that the variety must
have existed before Charles the Second’s reign, we may
assume belongs to something* approaching to the hundredth
generation of these household pets. The relative breadth,
between the outer surfaces of the zygomatic arches is con-
spicuously small; the narrowness of the .temporal fossae is
also striking; the zygomata are very slender; the temporal
muscles have left no marks whatever, either by limiting
lines or by the character of the surfaces covered; and the
places of attachment for the masseter muscles are very
feebly developed. At the Museum of Natural History,
among skulls of dogs there is one which, though unnamed,
is shown by its small size and by its teeth, to have belonged
to one variety or other of lap-dogs, and which has the same
traits in an equal degree with the skull just described.
Here, then, we have two if not three kinds of dogs which,
similarly leading protected and pampered lives, show that
in the course of generations the parts concerned in clench-
ing the jaws have dwindled. To what cause must this
decrease be ascribed ? Certainly not to artificial selection ;
for most of the modifications named make no appreciable
external signs : the width across the zygomata could alone
be perceived. Neither can natural selection have had any-
thing to do with it; for even were there any struggle for
existence among such dogs, it cannot be contended that
any advantage in the struggle could be gained by an
individual in which a decrease took place. Economy of
nutrition, too, is excluded. Abundantly fed as such dogs

400

THE FACTORS OS' ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

are, the constitutional tendency is to find places where
excess of absorbed nutriment may be conveniently deposited,
rather than to find places where some cutting down of the
supplies is practicable. Nor again can there be alleged a
possible correlation between these diminutions and that
shortening of the jaws which has probably resulted from
selection ; for in the bull-dog, which has also relatively
short jaws, these structures concerned in closing them
are unusually large. Thus there remains as the only con-
ceivable cause, the diminution of size which results from
diminished use. The dwindling of a little-exercised part
has, by inheritance, been made more and more marked in
successive generations.

Difficulties of another class may next be exemplified —
those which present themselves when we ask how there can
be effected by the selection of favourable variations, such
changes of structure as adapt an organism to some useful
action in which many different parts co-operate. None can
fail to see how a simple part may, in course of generations,
be greatly enlarged, if each enlargement furthers, in some
decided way, maintenance of the species. It is easy to
understand, too, how a complex part, as an entire limb,
may be increased as a whole by the simultaneous due
increase of its co-operative parts ; since if, while it is
growing, the channels of supply bring to the limb an
unusual quantity of blood, there will naturally result a
proportionately greater size of all its components-— bones,
muscles, arteries, veins, &c. But though in cases like this,
the co-operative parts forming some large complex part
may be expected to vary together, nothing implies that
they necessarily do so; and we have proof that in various
cases, even when closely united, they do not do so. An
example is furnished by those blind crabs named in the
Origin of Species which inhabit certain dark caves of Ken-
tucky, and which, though they have lost their eyes, have

401

THE FACTORS 01? OBOANIC EVOLUTION.

not lost the foot-stalks which carried their eyes. In
describing the varieties which have been produced by
pigeon-fanciers/ Mr. Darwin notes the fact that along with
changes in length of beak produced by selection!, there have
not gone proportionate changes in length of tongue. Take
again the case of teeth and jaws. In mankind these have
not varied together. During civilization the jaws have
decreased, but the teeth have not decreased in propor-
tion ; and hence that prevalent crowding of them, often
remedied in childhood by extraction of some, and in
other cases causing that imperfect development which is
followed by early decay. But the absence of proportionate
variation in co-operative parts that are close together, and
are even bound np in the same mass, is best seen in those
varieties of dogs named above as illustrating the inherited
effects of disuse. We see in them, as we see in the human
race, that diminution in the jaws has not been accompanied
by corresponding diminution in the teeth. In the catalogue
of the College of Surgeons Museum, there is appended to
the entry which identifies a Blenheim Spaniels skull, the
words — “ the teeth are closely crowded together/ 5 and to
the entry concerning the skull of a King Charles’s Spaniel
the words — “the teeth are closely packed, p. 3 , is placed
quite transversely to the axis of the skull.” It is further
noteworthy that in a case where there is no diminished use
of the jaws, but where they have been shortened by selection,
a like want of concomitant variation is manifested : the case
being that of the bull-dog, in the upper jaw of which also,
<e the premolars . . . are excessively crowded, and placed
obliquely or even transversely to the long axis of the skull.”*

If, then, in cases where we can test it, we find no con-

* It is probable that this shortening has resulted not directly but indirectly,
from the selection of individuals which. were noted for tenacity of hold; for
the bull-dog’s peculiarity in this respect seems due to relative shortness of
the upper jaw, giving the underhung structure which, involving retreat of
the nostrils, enables the dog to continue breathing while holding.

402

THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

eomitant variation in co-operative parts that are near
together — if we do not find it in parts which, though
belonging to different tissues, are so closely united as teeth
and jaws — if we do not find it even when the co-operative
parts are not only closely united, hut are formed out of the
same tissue, like the crab’s eye and its peduncle; what shall
we say of co-operative parts which, besides being composed
of different tissues, are remote from one another? Not only
are we forbidden to assume that they vary together, but
we are warranted in asserting that they can have no
tendency to vary together. And what are the implications
in cases where increase of a structure can be of no service
unless there is concomitant increase in many distant
structures, which have to join it in performing the action
for which it is useful ?

As far hack as 1864 (Principles of Biology, § 166) I named
in illustration an animal carrying heavy horns- — the extinct
Irish elk ; and indicated the many changes in bones,
muscles, blood-vessels, nerves, composing the fore-part of
the body, which would be required to make an increment
of size in such horns advantageous. Here let me take
another instance — that of the giraffe : an instance which
I take partly because, in the sixth edition of the Origin
of Species, issued in 1872, Mr. Darwin has referred to this
animal when effectually disposing of certain arguments
urged against his hypothesis. He there says : —

“ In order tliat an animal should acquire some structure specially and
largely developed, it is almost indispensable that several other parts should
be modified and co-adapted. Although every part of the body varies
slightly, it does not follow that the necessary parts should always vary in
the right direction and to the right degree ” (p. 179).

And in the summary of the chapter, he remarks concerning
the adjustments in the same quadruped, that “ the pro-
longed use of all the parts together with inheritance will
have aided in an important manner in their co-ordination ”
(p. 199) : a remark probably having reference chiefly to

THE FACTORS OB' ORGANIC EVOLUTION. 403

tlie increased massiveness of the lower part of the neck ;
the increased size and strength. of tlie thorax; required to
hear the additional : burden ; and tlie increased strength
of the fore-legs required to carry the greater weight of
both. But now I think that further consideration suggests
the belief that the entailed modifications are much more
numerous and remote than at first appears; and that the
greater part of these are such as cannot be ascribed in any
degree to the selection of favourable variations, but must
be ascribed exclusively to the inherited effects of changed
functions. Whoever has seen a giraffe gallop will long
remember the sight as a ludicrous one. The reason for the
strangeness of the motions is obvious. Though the fore
limbs and the hind limbs differ so much in length, yet in
galloping- they have to keep pace — must take equal strides.
The result is that at each stride, the angle which the hind
limbs describe round their centre of motion is much larger
than the angle described by the fore limbs. And beyond
this, as an aid in equalizing the strides, the hind part of
the back is at each stride bent very much downwards and
forwards. Hence the hind-quarters appear to be doing
nearly all the work. How a moment’s observation shows that
the bones and muscles composing the hind-quarters of the
giraffe, perform actions differing in one or other way and
degree, from the actions performed by the homologous
bones and muscles in a mammal of ordinary proportions,
and from those in the ancestral mammal which gave origin
to the giraffe. Each further stage of that growth which
produced the large fore-quarters and neck, entailed some
adapted change in sundry of the numerous parts composing
tlie hind-quarters; since any failure in the adjustment of
their respective strengths would entail some defect in speed
and consequent loss of life when chased. It needs but to
remember how, when continuing to walk with a blistered
foot, the taking of steps in such a modified way as to
diminish pressure on the sore point, soon produces aching

m

THE FACTOES OF OEGAKIC EVOLUTIOH.

of muscles which are called into unusual action, to soo tliafc
over-straining of any one of the muscles of tlie giraffe’s hind-
quarters might quickly incapacitate the animal when putting
out all its powers to escape ; and to he a few yards behind
others would cause death. Hence if we are debarred from
assuming that ‘co-operative parts vary together even when
adjacent and, closely united — if we are still more debarred
from assuming that with increased length of fore-legs or
of neck, there will go an appropriate change in any one
muscle or bone in the hind-quarters ; how entirely out of
the question it is to assume that there will simultaneously
take place the appropriate changes in all those many
components of the hind-quarters which severally require
re-adjustment. It is useless to reply that an increment of
length in the fore-legs or neck might be retained and
transmitted to posterity, waiting an appropriate variation
in a particular bone or muscle in the hind-quarters, which,
being made, would allow of a further increment. For
besides the fact that until this secondary variation occurred
the primary variation would be a disadvantage often fatal;
and besides the fact that before such an appropriate
secondary variation might be expected in the course of
generations to occur, the primary variation would have
died out; there is the fact that the appropriate variation, of
one bone or muscle in the hind-quarters would be useless
without appropriate variations of all the rest — some in
this way and some in that — a number of appropriate
variations which it is impossible to suppose.

Nor is this all. Far more numerous appropriate varia-
tions would be indirectly necessitated. The immense
change in the ratio of fore-quarters to hind-quarters would
make requisite a corresponding change of ratio in the
appliances carrying on the nutrition of the two. The
entire vascular system, arterial and veinous, would have to
undergo successive unbuildings and rebuildings to make its
channels everywhere adequate to the local requirements;

f HE H FACTORS OF OEQANIC EVOLUTION.

since any want of adjustment in tlie 'blood-supply in this
or that set of muscles, would entail incapacity, failure of
speed, and loss of life. Moreover the nerves supplying the
various sets of muscles would have to ho proportionately
changed; as well as the central nervous tracts from which
they issued. Can we suppose that all these appropriate
changes, too, would be step by step simultaneously made
by fortunate spontaneous variations, occurring along with
all the other fortunate spontaneous variations ? Consider-
ing how immense must be the number of these required
changes, added to the changes above enumerated, the
chances against any adequate re-adjustments fortuitously
arising must be infinity to one.

If the effects of uso and disuse of parts are inheritable,
then any change in the fore parts of the giraffe which
affects the action of the hind limbs and back, will simul-
taneously cause, by the greater or less exercise of it, a
re-moulding of each component in the hind limbs a.nd
back in a way adapted to the new demands; and generation
after generation the entire structure of the hind-quarters
will be progressively fitted to the changed structure of the
fore-quarters : all the appliances for nutrition and innerva-
tion being at the same time progressively fitted to both.
But in the absence of this inheritance of functionally-
produced modifications, there is no seeing how the required
re-adjustments can be made.

Yet a third class of difficulties stands in the way of the
belief that the natural selection of useful variations is the
sole factor of organic evolution. This class of difficulties,
already pointed out in § 166 of the Principles of Biology ,
I cannot more clearly set forth than in the words there
used. Hence I may perhaps be excused for here quoting
them. ®

“ Where the life is comparatively simple, or where surrounding circum-
stances render some one function supremely important, the survival of the
fittest may readily bring about the appropriate structural change, without any

THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

400

aid from the transmission of functionally-acquired modifications. Hut in
proportion as the life grows complex — in proportion as a healthy existence
cannot bo secured by a large endowment of some one power, but demands
many powers ; in the same proportion do there arise obstacles to the increase
of any particular power, by “ the preservation of favoured races in the
struggle for life.” As fast as the faculties are multiplied, so fast does it
become possible for the several members of a species to have various kinds
of superiorities over one another. While one saves its life by higher speed,
another does the like by clearer vision, another by keener scent, another by
quicker hearing, another by greater strength, another by unusual power of
enduring cold or hunger, another by special sagacity, another by special
timidity, another by special courage ; and others by other bodily and mental
attributes. Now it is unquestionably true that, other things equal, each of
these attributes, giving its possessor an extra chance of life, is likely to be
transmitted to posterity. But there seems no reason to suppose that it will
be increased in subsequent generations by natural selection. That it may be
thus increased, the individuals not possessing more than average endow-
ments of it, must be more frequently killed off than individuals highly
endowed with it ; and this can happen only when the attribute is one of
greater importance, for the time being, than most of the other attributes. If
those members of the species which have but ordinary shares of it, neverthe-
less survive by virtue of other superiorities which they severally possess ;
then it is not easy to see how this particular attribute can be developed by
natural selection in subsequent generations. The probability seems rather
to be, that by gaffiogenesis, this extra endowment will, on the average, be
diminished in posterity — just serving in the long run to compensate the
deficient endowments of other individuals, whose special powers lie in other
directions; and so to keep up the normal structure of the species. The
working out of the process is here somewhat difficult to follow ; but it appears
to me that as fast as the number of bodily and mental faculties increases,
and as fast as the maintenance of life comes to depend less on the amount
of any one, and more on the combined action of all ; so fast does the pro-
duction of specialities of character by natural selection alone, become
difficult. Particularly does this seem to be so with a species so multitudinous
in its powers as mankind ; and above all does it seem to be so with such of
the human powers as have but minor shares in aiding the struggle for life —
the Esthetic faculties, for example.”

Dwelling for a moment on this last illustration of the
class of difficulties described, let us ask how we are to
interpret the development of the musical faculty. I will
not enlarge on the family antecedents* of the great com-
posers. I will merely suggest the inquiry whether the
greater powers possessed by Beethofen and Mozart, by
Weber and Rossini, than by their fathers, were not due

TH13 FACTORS OP ORGANIC EVOLUTION. 407

in larger measure to the inherited- effects of daily exercise
of the musical faculty by their fathers, than to inheritance,
with increase, of spontaneous variations; and whether the
diffused musical powers of the Bach clan, culminating in
those of Johann Sebastian, did not result in part from
constant practice; but I will raise the more general
question— How came there that endowment of musical
faculty which characterizes modern Europeans at largo, as
compared with their remote ancestors. The monotonous
chants of low savages cannot he said to show any melodic
inspiration; and it is not evident that an individual
savage who had a little more musical perception than the
rest, would derive any such advantage in the maintenance
of life as would secure the spread of his superiority by
inheritance of the variation. And then what are wo to
say of harmony ? We cannot suppose that the appreciation
of this, which is relatively modern, can have arisen by
descent from the men in whom successive variations
increased the appreciation of it— the composers and musical
performers ; for on the whole, these have been men whose
worldly prosperity was not such as enabled them to rear
many children inheriting their special traits. Even if wo
count the illegitimate ones, the survivors of these added to
the survivors of the legitimate ones, can hardly be hold to
have yielded more than average numbers of descendants ;
and those who inherited their special traits have not often
been thereby so aided in the struggle for existence as to
further the spread of such traits. Rather the tendency
seems to have been the reverse.

Since the above passage was written, I have found in the
second volume of Animals and Plants under Domestication ,
a remark made by Mr. Darwin, practically implying
that among creatures which depend for their lives on the
efficiency of numerous powers, the increase of .any one by
the natural selection of a variation is necessarily difficult.
Here it is. •

408

TOT. FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

“ Finally, as indefinite and almost illimitable variability is the -usual result
of domestication and cultivation, -with tho same part or organ varying in
different individuals in different or even in directly opposite ways ; and as
the same variation, if strongly . pronounced, usually recurs only after long
intervals of time, any particular variation would generally be lost by
Crossing, reversion, and the accidental destruction of the varying individuals,
unless carefully preserved by man.” — Vol. ii, 292.

Remembering that mankind, subject as they are to this
domestication and cultivation, are not, like domesticated
animals, under an agency •which picks out and preserves
particular variations; it results that there must usually be
among them, under the influence of natural selection alone,
a continual disappearance of any useful variations of
particular faculties which may arise. Only in cases of
variations which are specially preservative, as for example,
great cunning during a relatively barbarous state, can we
expect increase from natural selection alone. We cannot
suppose that minor traits, exemplified among others by the
aesthetic perceptions, can have been evolved by natural
selection. But if there is inheritance of functionally-
produced modifications of structure, evolution of such minor
traits is no longer inexplicable.

Two remarks made by Mr. Darwin have implications
from which the same general conclusion, must, I th ink, be
drawn.. Speaking of the variability of animals and plants
under domestication, he says : —

“ Changes of any kind in the conditions of life, even extremely slight
changes, often suffice to cause variability. . . Animals and plants continue
to be variable for an immense period after their first domestication; . . ,
In the course of time they can be habituated to certain changes, so as to
become less variable ; . . . There is good evidence that the power of
changed conditions accumulates ; so that two, three, or more generations
must be exposed to new conditions before any effect is visible. . , »
Some variations are induced by the direct action of the surrounding
conditions on the whole organization, or on certain parts alone, and other
variations are induced indirectly through the reproductive system being
affected in the same manner as is so common with organic beings when
removed from their natural conditions .’ ’—(Animals and Plants under
Domestication, vol. ii, 270.)

409

THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

There' are to be recognized two modes of this effect
produced by changed conditions .on the reproductive system,
and consequently on offspring. Simple arrest of develop-
ment is one. But beyond the variations of offspring arising
from imperfectly developed reproductive systems in parents
— variations which must be ordinarily in the nature of
imperfections— there are others due to a changed balance
of functions caused by changed conditions. The fact noted
by Mr. Darwin in the above passage, “ that the power of
changed conditions accumulates ; so that two, three, or
more generations must be exposed to new conditions before
any effect is visible,” implies that during these generations
there is going on some change of constitution consequent
on the changed proportions and relations of the functions.
I will not dwell on the implication, which seems tolerably
clear, that this change must consist of such modifications
of organs as adapt them to their changed functions; and
that if the influence of changed conditions <c accumulates,”
it must be through the inheritance of such modifications*
Nor will I press the question — What is the nature of the
effect registered in the reproductive elements, and which
is subsequently manifested by variations ? — Is it an effect
entirely irrelevant to the new requirements of the variety ?

• — Or is it an effect which makes the variety less fit for the
new requirements ? — Or is it an effect which makes it more
fit for the new requirements? But not pressing these
questions, it suffices to point out the necessary implication
that changed functions of organs do, in some way or other,
register themselves in changed proclivities of the repro-
ductive elements. In face of these facts it cannot be denied
that the modified action of a part produces an inheritable
effect— be the nature of that effect what it may.

The second of the remarks above adverted to as made
by Mr. Darwin, is contained in his sections dealing with
correlated variations In. the Origin of Species, p. 114,
he says-—'' ■

410 THE FACTORS OE ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

“ The whole organization is so tied together daring its growth and develop-
ment, that when slight variations in any one part occur, and are accumu-
lated through natural selection, other parts become modified.”

And a parallel statement contained in Animals and Plants
under Domestication, vol. ii, p. 320, runs tlms —

“ Correlated variation is an important subject for us ; for when one part
is modified through continued selection, either by man or under nature,
other parts of the organization will he unavoidably modified. Prom this
correlation it apparently follows that, with our domesticated animals and
plants, varieties rarely: or never differ from each other by some single
character alone.”

By what process does a changed part modify other
parts ? By modifying their functions in some way or
degree, seems the necessary answer. It is indeed, imagin-
able, that where the part changed is some dermal appen-
dage which, becoming larger, has abstracted more of the
needful material from the general stock, the effect may
consist simply in diminishing the amount of this material
available for other dermal appendages, leading to diminu-
tion of some or all of them, and may fail to affect in
appreciable ways the rest of the organism : save perhaps
the blood-vessels near the enlarged appendage. But where
the part is an active one — a limb, or viscus, or any organ
which constantly demands blood, produces waste matter,
secretes, or absorbs — then all the other active organs
become implicated in the change. The functions per-
formed by them have to constitute a moving equilibrium ;
and the function of one cannot, by alteration of the struc-
ture performing it, be modified in degree or kind, Without
modifying the functions of the rest — some appreciably and
others inappreciably, according to the directness or indi-
rectness of their relations. Of such inter-dependent changes,
the normal ones are naturally inconspicuous; but those
which are partially or completely abnormal, sufficiently
carry home the general truth. Thus, unusual cerebral
excitement affects the excretion through the kidneys in
quantity or quality or both. Strong emotions of disagree-
able kinds check or arrest the flow of bile. A considerable

THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

411

obstacle to the circulation offered by some important
structure in a diseased or disordered state, throwing more
strain upon the heart, causes hypertrophy of its muscular
walls; and this change which is, so far as concerns the
primary evil, a remedial one, often entails mischiefs in
other organs. “ Apoplexy and palsy, in a scarcely credible
number of cases, are directly dependent on hypertropic
enlargement of the heart.” And in other cases, asthma,
dropsy, and epilepsy are caused. Now if a result of this
inter-dependence as seen in the individual organism, is that
a local modification of one part produces, by changing their
functions, correlative modifications of other parts, then the
question here to he put is — -Are these correlative modifica-
tions, when of a kind falling within normal limits, inheritable
or not. If they are inheritable, then the fact stated by Mr.
Darwin that “ when one part is modified through continued
selection/’ <c other parts of the organization will be una-
voidably modified” is perfectly intelligible : these entailed
secondary modifications are transmitted pan passu with the
successive modifications produced by selection. But what if
they are not inheritable ? Then these secondary modifications
caused in the individual, not being transmitted to descend-
ants, the descendants must commence life with organiza-
tions out of balance, and with each increment of change
in the part affected by selection, their organizations must
get more out of balance- — must have a larger and larger
amounts of re-organization to be made during their lives.
Hence the constitution of the variety must become more
and more unworkable.

The only imaginable alternative is that the re-adjust-
ments are effected in course of time by natural selection.
But, in the first place, as we find no proof of concomitant
variation among directly co-operative parts which are
closely united, there cannot be assumed any concomitant
variation among parts which are both indirectly co-opera-
tive and far from one another. And, in the second place,

412 THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

before all the many required re-adjustments could be made,
tlie variety would die out from, defective constitution.
Even were there no such difficulty, we should still have to
entertain a strange group of propositions, which would
stand as follows : — I. Change in one part entails, by
reaction on the organism, changes, in other parts, the func-
tions of which are necessarily changed. 2. Such changes
worked in the individual, affect, in some way, the repro-
ductive elements : these being found to evolve unusual
structures when the constitutional balance has been con-
tinuously disturbed. 8. But the changes in the reproduc-
tive elements thus caused, are not such as represent these
functionally-produced changes : the modifications conveyed
to offspring are irrelevant to these various modifications
functionally produced in the organs of the parents. 4.
Nevertheless, while the balance of functions cannot be re-
established through inheritance of the effects of disturbed
functions on structures, wrought throughout the individual
organism ; it can be re-established by the inheritance
of fortuitous variations which occur in all the affected
organs without reference to these changes of function.

Now without saying that acceptance of this group of
propositions is impossible, we may certainly say that it is
not easy.

“But where are the direct proofs that inheritance of
functionally-produced modifications takes place V ' is a
question which will be put by those who have committed
themselves to the current exclusive interpretation. “ Grant
that there are difficulties; still, before the transmitted
effects of use and disuse can be legitimately assigned in
explanation of them, we must have good evidence that the
effects of use and disuse are transmitted.”

Before dealing directly with this demurrer, let me deal
with it indirectly, by pointing out that the lack of recog-
nized evidence may be accounted for without assuming

THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION. &13

that there is not plenty of it. Inattention and reluctant
attention lead to the ignoring of facts winch really exist in
abundance ; as is well illustrated in the case of pro-historic
implements. Biassed by the current belief that no traces
of man were to be found on the Earth’s surface, save in
certain superficial formations- of very recent date, geologists
and anthropologists not only neglected to seek such traces,
but for a long time continued to pooh-pooh those who said
they had found them. When M. Boucher de Perthes at
length succeeded in drawing the eyes of scientific men to
the flint implements discovered by him in the quarternary
deposits of the Somme valley ; and when geologists and
anthropologists had thus been convinced that evidences
of human existence were to be found in formations of
considerable age, and thereafter began to search for them ;
they found plenty of them all over the world. Or again,
to take an instance closely germane to the matter, we may
recall the fact that the contemptuous attitude towards
the hypothesis of organic evolution which naturalists in
general maintained” before the publication of Mr. Darwin's
work, prevented them from seeing the multitudinous facts
by which it is supported. Similarly, it is very possible
that their alienation from the belief that there is a trans-
mission of those changes of structure which are produced
by changes of action, makes naturalists slight the evidence
which supports that belief and refuse to occupy themselves
in seeking further evidence.

If it be asked how it happens that there have been
recorded multitudinous instances of variations fortuitously
arising and re-appearing in offspring, while there have not
been recorded instances of the transmission of changes
functionally produced, there are three replies. The first
is that changes of the one class are many of them con-
spicuous, while those of the other class are nearly all
inconspicuous. If a child is born with six fingers, the
anomaly is not simply obvious but so startling as to attract

414 THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

much notice ; and if this child, growing up, lias six -
fingered descendants, everybody in the locality hears of
it. A pigeon with specially-coloured feathers, or one
distinguished by a broadened and upraised tail, or by a
protuberance of the neck, draws attention by its oddness ;
and if in its young the trait is repeated, occasionally with
increase, the fact is remarked, and there follows the thought
of establishing the peculiarity by selection. A lamb dis-
abled from leaping by the shortness of its legs, could not
fail to be observed; and the fact that its offspring were
similarly short-legged, and had a consequent inability to
get over fences, would inevitably become widely known.
Similarly with plants. That this flower had an extra
n amber of petals, that that was unusually symmetrical,
and that another differed considerably in colour from the
average of its kind, would be easily seen by an observant
gardener; and the suspicion that such anomalies are
inheritable having arisen, experiments leading to further
proofs that they are so, would frequently be made. , But it
is not thus with functionally-produced modifications. The
seats of these are in nearly all cases the muscular, osseous,
and nervous systems, and the viscera — parts which are
either entirely hidden or greatly obscured. Modification
in a nervous centre is inaccessible to vision ; bones may be
considerably altered in size or shape without attention
being drawn to them; and, covered with thick coats as
are most of the animals open to continuous observation, the
increases or decreases in muscles must be great before they
become externally perceptible.

A farther important difference between the two inquiries
is that to ascertain whether a fortuitous variation is
inheritable, needs merely a little attention to the selection
of individuals and the observation of offspring ; while to
ascertain whether there is inheritance of a functionally-
produced modification, it is requisite to make arrangements
which demand the greater or smaller exercise of some part

THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

415

or parts ; and it is difficult in many cases to find such
arrangements, troublesome to maintain them even for one
generation, and still more through successive generations.

Nor is tills all. There exist stimuli to inquiry in the one
case which do not exist in the other. The money-interest
and the interest of the fancier, acting now separately and
now together, have prompted multitudinous individuals to
make experiments which have brought out clear evidence
that fortuitous variations are inherited. The cattle-breeders
who profit by producing certain shapes and qualities; the
keepers of pet animals who take pride in the perfections
of those they have hred; the florists, professional and
amateur, who obtain new varieties and take prizes ; form a
body of men who furnish naturalists with countless of the
required proofs. But there is no such body of men, led
either by pecuniary interest or the interest of a hobby, to
ascertain by experiments whether the effects of use and
disuse are inheritable.

Thus, then, there are amply sufficient reasons why there
is a great deal of direct evidence in the one case and but
little in the other : such little being that which comes out
incidentally. Let us look at what there is of it.

Considerable weight attaches to a fact which Brown-
Sequard discovered, quite by accident, in the course of
his researches. He found that certain artificially-produced
lesions of the nervous system, so small even as a section of
the sciatic nerve, left, after healing, an increasing excit-
ability which ended in liability to epilepsy; and there
afterwards came out the unlooked-for result that the
offspring of guinea-pigs which had thus acquired an
epileptic habit such that a pinch on the neck would produce
a fit, inherited an epileptic habit of like kind. It has,
indeed, been since alleged that guinea pigs tend to epilepsy,
and that phenomena of the kind described, occur where
there have been no antecedents like those in Brown-

416 THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION*

Sequard’s case. But considering the improbability tint
tlie phenomena observed by him happened to be nothing
more than phenomena which occasionally arise naturally,
we may, until there is good proof to the contrary, assign
some value to his results.

Evidence not of this directly experimental kind, but
nevertheless of considerable weight, is furnished by other
nervous disorders. There is proof enough that insanity
admits of being induced by circumstances which, in one or
other Way, derange the nervous functions — excesses of this
or that kind; and no one questions the accepted belief
that insanity is inheritable. Is it alleged that the insanity
which is inheritable is that which spontaneously arises, and
that the insanity which follows some chronic perversion of
functions is not inheritable? This does not seem a very
reasonable allegation; and until some warrant for it is
forthcoming, we may fairly assume that there is here a
further support for belief in the transmission of functionally-
produced changes.

Moreover, I find among physicians the belief that
nervous disorders of a less severe kind are inheritable.
Men who have prostrated their nervous systems by prolonged
overwork or in some other way, have children more or less
prone to nervousness. It matters not what may be the
form of inheritance — whether it be of a brain in some way
imperfect, or of a deficient blood-supply ; it is in any case
the inheritance of functionally-modified structures.

Verification of the reasons above given for the paucity
of this direct evidence, is yielded by contemplation of it;
for it is observable: that the cases named are cases which,
from one or other cause, have thrust themselves on
observation. They justify the suspicion that it is not
because such eases are rare that many of them cannot be
cited ; but simply because they are mostly unobtrusive, and
to bo found only by that deliberate search which nobody
makes, I say nobody, but I am wrong. Successful search

THE EACTOES OE OEGANIC EVOLUTION. ' 417

has "boon made by one whose competence as an observer is
beyond question, and whose testimony is less liable than
that of all others to any bias towards the conclusion that
such inheritance tabes place. I refer to the author of
the Origin of Species.

Now-a-days most naturalists are more Darwinian than
Mr. Darwin himself . I do not mean that their beliefs in
organic evolution are more decided; though I shall be
supposed to mean this by the mass of readers, who identify
Mr. Darwin’s great contribution to the theory of organic
evolution, with the theory of organic evolution itself, and
even with the theory of evolution at large. But I mean
that the particular factor which he first recognized as
having played so immense a part in organic evolution, has
come to be regarded by his followers as the sole factor,
though it was not so regarded by him. It is true that he
apparently rejected altogether the causal agencies alleged
by earlier- inquirers. In the Historical Sketch prefixed' to
the later editions of his Origin of Species (p. xiv, note),
he writes : — “It is curious how largely my grandfather,
Dr. Erasmus Darwin, anticipated the views and erroneous
grounds of opinion of Lamarck in his * Zoonomia 3 (vol. i,
pp. 500-510), published in 1794.” And since, among the
views thus referred to, was the view that changes of
structure in organisms arise by the inheritance of function-
ally-produced changes, Mr. Darwin seems, by the above
sentence, to have implied his disbelief in such inheritance.
But he did not mean to imply this; for his belief in it as
a cause of evolution, if not an important cause, is proved
by many passages in his works. In the first chapter of
the Origin of Species (p, 8 of the sixth edition}, he says
respecting the inherited effects of habit, that “with
animals the increased use or disuse of parts has had a more
marked influence;” and he gives as instances the changed
relative weights of the wing bones and leg bones of the

418

THE EACTOES OE OEGAKIC EVOLUTION.

-wild duck and tlie domestic duck, tko great and inker-
ited development of tke udders in cows and goats,” and
tko drooping ears of various domestic animals. Here are
other passages taken from tlie latest edition of tlie work.

“ I think there can be no doubt that use in our domestic animals has
strengthened and enlarged certain parts, and disuse diminished them ; and
that such modifications are inherited ” (p. 108). [And on the following
pages he gives five further examples of such effects.] “ Habit in producing
constitutional peculiarities and: use in strengthening and disuse in weaken-
ing and diminishing organs, appear in many cases to have been potent in
their effects ” (p. 131). . “ When discussing special cases, Mr. Mivart passes
over the effects of the increased use and disuse of parts, which I have
always maintained to be highly important, and have treated in my ‘ Varia-
tion under Domestication’ at greater length than, as I believe, any other
writer ” (p. 176). “ Disuse, on the other hand, will account for the less
developed condition of the whole inferior half of the body, including the
lateral fins ” (p. 188). “ 1 may give another instance of a structure which
apparently owes its origin exclusively to use or habit ” (p. 188). It
appears probable that disuse has been the main agent in rendering organs
rudimentary ” (pp. 400—401). “ On the whole, we may conclude that habit,
or use and disuse, have, in some cases, played a considerable part in the
modification of the constitution and structure ; but that the effects have
often been largely combined with, and sometimes overmastered by, the
natural selection of innate variations ” (p. 114).

Iii Lis subsequent work. The Variation of Animals and
Plants under Domestication , wkere lie goes into full detail,
Mr. Darwin gives more numerous illustrations of tlie
inkerited effects of use and disuse. Tke following are some
of tke cases, quoted from volume i of tke first edition.

Treating of domesticated rabbits, he says: — “the want of exercise has
apparently modified the proportional length of the limbs in comparison with
the body ” (p. 116). “We thus see that the most important and complicated
organ [the brain] in the whole organization is subject to the law of decrease
in size from disuse ” (p. 129). He remarks that in birds of the oceanic
islands “ not persecuted by any enemies, the reduction of their wings has
probably been caused by gx-adual disuse.” After comparing one of these, the
Water-hen of Tristan d’Acunha, with the European water-hen, and showing
that all the bones concerned in flight are smaller, he adds — “ Hence in the
skeleton of this natural species nearly the same changes have occurred, only
carried a little further, as with our domestic ducks, and in this latter case I
presume no one will dispute that they have resulted from the lessened use of
the wings and the increased use of the legs ” (pp. 286-7). “ As with other
long-domesticated animals, the instincts of the sillc-moth have suffered, The

419

THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

caterpillars, when placed oii a mulberry-tree, often commit the strange mis-
take of devouring the base of the leaf on which they are feeding*' and
consequently fall down ; but they are capable, according to M. Bobinet, of
again crawling up the trunk. Even this capacity sometimes fails, for
M, Martins placed some caterpillars on a tree, and those which fell were
not able to remount and perished of hunger ; they were even incapable of
passing from leaf to leaf ” (p. 304).

Here axe some instances of like meaning from volume ii.

“In many cases there is reason to believe that the lessened use of various
organs has affected the corresponding parts in the offspring. But there is no
good evidence that this ever follows in the course of a single generation. . .
Our domestic fowls, ducks, and geese have almost lost, not only in the
individual but in the race, their power of flight; for we do not see a chicken,
when frightened, take flight like a young pheasant. . . . With domestic
pigeons, the length of the sternum, the prominence of its crest, the length of
the scapula and furcula, the length of the wings as measured from tip to tip
of the radius, are all reduced relatively to the same parts in the wild pigeon.”
[After detailing kindred diminutions in fowls and ducks, Mr. Darwin adds]
“ The decreased weight and size of the bones, in the foregoing cases, is
probably the indirect result of the reaction of the weakened muscles on the
bones ” (pp. 297-8). “ Nathusius has shown that, with the improved races
of the pig, the shortened legs and snout, the form of the articular condyles of
the occiput, and the position of the jaws with the upper canine teeth pro-
jecting in a most anomalous manner in front of the lower canines, may be
attributed to these parts not having been fully exercised. . . . These modi-
fications of structure, which are all strictly inherited, characterise several
improved breeds, so that they cannot have been derived from any single
domestic or wild stock. With respect to cattle, Professor Tanner has
remarked that the lungs and liver in the improved breeds ‘ are found to be
considerably reduced in size when compared with those possessed by animals
having perfect liberty ... The cause of the reduced lungs in highly-bred
animals which take little exercise is obvious ” (pp. 299-300). [And on pp.
301, 302 and 303, he gives facts showing the effects of use and disuse in
changing, among domestic animals, the characters of the ears, the lengths
of the intestines, and, in various ways, the natures of the instincts.]

But Mr. Darwin’s admission, or ratlier liis assertion,
tkat the inheritance of functionally-produced modifications
has been a factor in organic evolution, is made clear not
by these passages alone and by kindred ones. It is made
clearer still by a passage in the preface to the second edition
of his Descent of Man. He there protests against that
current version of his views in which this factor makes no
appearance. The passage is as follows.

420

THE EACTOES OH ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

“ I may fake this opportunity ol remarking that my critics frequently
assume that I attribute all changes of corporeal structure and mental power
exclusively to the natural selection of such variations as are often called
spontaneous ; whereas, even in the first edition of the ‘ Origin of Species,’ I
distinctly stated that great weight must be attributed to the inherited effects
of use and disuse, with respect both to the body and mind.”

Nor is this all. There' is evidence that Mr. Darwin’s
"belief in the efficiency of this factor, became stronger as he
grew older and accumulated more evidence. The first of
the extracts above given, taken from the sixth edition of the
Origin of Species, runs thus : —

“ I think there can be no doubt that use in our domestic animals has
strengthened and enlarged certain parts, and disuse diminished them ; and
that such modifications are inherited.”

Now on turning to the first edition, p. 134, it will be
found that instead of the words — “ I think there can be no
doubt/’ the words originally used were — “ I think there
can ba little doubt.” That this deliberate erasure of
a qualifying word and substitution of a -word implying
unqualified belief, was due to a more decided recognition of
a factor originally under-estimated, is clearly implied by the
wording of the above-quoted passage from the preface to
the Descent of Man; where he says that “ even in the first
edition of the e Origin of Species,’” &c. : the implication
being that much more in subsequent editions, and subsequent
works, had he insisted on this factor. The change thus
indicated is especially significant as having occurred at
a time of life when the natural tendency is towards fixity
of opinion.

During that earlier period when he was discovering the
multitudinous cases in which his own hypothesis afforded
solutions, and simultaneously observing how utterly futile
in these multitudinous cases was the hypothesis pro-
pounded by his grandfather and Lamarck, Mr. Darwin
was, not unnaturally, almost betrayed into the belief that
the one is all-sufficient and the other inoperative. But
in the mind of one so candid and ever open to more
evidence, there naturally came a reaction. The inheritance

THE EACTOES OE ORGANIC EVOLUTION. 421

of functionally-produced modifications, which, judging "by
the passage quoted above concerning the views of these
earlier enquirers, would seem to have been at one time
denied, but which as we have seen was always to some
extent recognized, came to be recognized more and more,
and deliberately included as a factor of importance.

Of this reaction displayed in the later writings of Mr.
Darwin, let us now ask- — Has it not to be carried further ?
Was the share in organic evolution which Mr. Darwin
latterly assigned to the transmission of modifications caused
by use and disuse, its due share ? Consideration of the
groups of evidences given above, will, I think, lead us
to believe that its share has been much larger than he
supposed even in his later days.

There is first the implication yielded by extensive
classes of phenomena which remain inexplicable in the
absence of this factor. If, as we see, co-operative parts do
not vary together, even when few and close together, and
may not therefore be assumed to do so when many and
remote, we cannot account for those innumerable changes
in organization which are implied when, for advantageous
use of some modified part, many other parts which join it
in action have to he modified.

Further, as increasing complexity of structure, accom-
panying increasing complexity of life, implies increasing
number of faculties, of which each one conduces to preserva-
tion of self or descendants ; and as the various individuals
of a species, severally requiring something like the normal
amounts of all these, may individually profit, here by au
unusual amount of one, and there by an unusual amount of
another ; it follows that as the number of faculties becomes
greater, it becomes more difficult for any one to be further
developed by natural selection. Only where increase of
some one is predominantly advantageous does the means
seem adequate to the end. Especially in the case of

4-22

THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

powers which do not subserve self-preservation in appreci-
able degrees, does development by. natural selection appear
impracticable.

It is a fact recognized by Mr. Darwin, that where, by
selection through successive generations, a part has been
increased or decreased, its reaction upon other parts
entails changes in them. This reaction is effected through
the changes of function involved. If the changes of
structure produced by such changes of function, are
inheritable, then the re-adjustment of parts throughout the
organism, taking place generation after generation, main-
tains an approximate balance ; but if not, then generation
after generation the organism must get more and more out
of gear, and tend to become unworkable.

Further, as it is proved that change in the balance of
functions registers its effects on the reproductive elements,
we have to choose between the alternatives that the regis-
tered effects are irrelevant to the particular modifications
which the organism has undergone, or that they are such
as tend to produce repetitions of these modifications. The
last of these alternatives makes the facts comprehensible;
but the first of them not only leaves us with several
unsolved problems, but is incongruous with the general
truth that by reproduction, ancestral traits, down to minuto
details, are transmitted.

Though, in the absence of pecuniary interests and the
interests in hobbies, no such special experiments as those
which have established the inheritance of fortuitous varia-
tions have been made to ascertain whether functionally-
produced modifications are inherited ; yet certain apparent
instances of such inheritance have forced themselves on
observation without being sought for. In addition to
other indications of a less conspicuous kind, is the one I
have given above — the fact that the apparatus for tearing
and mastication has decreased with decrease of its function,
alike in civilized man and in some varieties of dogs which

THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION. 423

lead protected and pampered lives. Of the numerous cases
named by Mr. Darwin, it is observable that they are
yielded not by one class of parts only, but by most if not
all classes- — -by the dermal system, the muscular system, the
osseous system, the nervous system, the viscera ; and that
among parts liable to be functionally modified, the most
numerous observed cases of inheritance are furnished by
those which admit of preservation and easy comparison —
the bones : these cases, moreover, being specially signifi-
cant as showing how, in sundry unallied species, parallel
changes of structure have occurred along with parallel
changes of habit.

What, then, shall we say of the general implication ?
Are we to stop short with the admission that inheritance
of functionally-produced modifications takes place only in
eases in which there is evidence of it ? May we properly
assume that these many instances of changes of structure
caused by changes of function, occurring in various tissues
and various organs, are merely special and exceptional
instances having no general significance? Shall we
suppose that though the evidence which already exists
has come to light without aid from a body of inquirers,
there would be no great increase were due attention
devoted to the collection of evidence ? This is, I think,
not a reasonable supposition. To me the ensemble of the
facts suggests the belief, scarcely to be resisted, that the
inheritance of functionally-produced modifications takes
place universally. Looking at physiological phenomena as
conforming to physical principles, it is difficult to conceive
that a changed play of organic forces which in many
cases of different kinds produces an inherited change of
structure, does not do this in all cases. The implication,
very strong I think, is that the action of every organ
produces on it a reaction which, usually not altering its
rate of nutrition, sometimes leaves it with diminished
nutrition consequent on diminished action, and at other
19

424 :

THE PACTOES OP ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

times increases its nutrition in proportion to its increased
action ; that while generating a modified consensus of
functions and of structures, the activities are at the same
time impressing this modified consensus on the sperm-cells
and germ-cells whence future individuals are to be pro-
duced* and that in ways mostly too small to be identified,
but occasionally iu more conspicuous ways and in the
course of generations, the resulting modifications of one or
other kind show themselves. Further, it seems to me that
as there are certain extensive classes of phenomena which
are inexplicable if we assume the inheritance of fortuitous
variations to be the sole factor, but which become at once
explicable if we admit the inheritance of functionally-pro-
duced, changes, we are justified in concluding that this
inheritance of functionally-produced changes has been not
Simply a co-operating factor in organic evolution, but has
been a co-operating factor without which organic evolu-
tion, in its higher forms at any fate, could never have
taken place.

Be this or be it not a warrantable conclusion, there is,
I think, good reason for a provisional acceptance of the
hypothesis that the effects of use and disuse are inheritable ;
and for a methodic pursuit of inquiries with the view of either
establishing it of disproving it. It seems scarcely reasonable
to accept without clear demonstration, the belief that while
a trivial difference of structure arising spontaneously is
transmissible, a massive difference of structure, main-
tained generation after generation by change of function,
leaves no trace in posterity. Considering that unquestionably
the modification of structure by function is a vera causa ,
in so far as concerns the individual ; and considering
the number of facts which so competent an observer as
Mr. Darwin regarded as evidence that transmission of
such modifications takes place in particular cases; the
hypothesis that such transmission takes place in con-
formity with a general law, holding of all active structures,

THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION. 425

should, I think, be regarded as at least a good working
hypothesis.

But now supposing the broad conclusion above drawn to
be granted— supposing all to agree that from the beginning,
along with inheritance of useful variations fortuitously
arising, there has been inheritance of effects produced by
use and disuse; do there remain no classes of organic
phenomena unaccounted for? To this question I think it
must be replied that there do remain classes of organic
phenomena unaccounted for. It may, I believe, be shown
that certain cardinal traits of animals and plants at large
are still unexplained ; and that a further factor must
be recognized. To show this, however, will require
another paper.

II.

Ask a plumber who is repairing your pump, how the
water is raised in it, and he replies : — “ By suction.” Recall-
ing the ability which he has to suck up water into his
mouth through a tube, he is certain that he understands
the pump’s action. To inquire what he means by suction,
seems to him absurd. He says yon know as well as he
does, what he means; and he cannot see that there is any
need for asking how it happens that the water rises in the
tube when he strains his mouth in a particular way. To
the question why the pump, acting by suction, will not
make the water rise above 32 feet, and practically not so
much, he can give no answer; but this does not shake his
confidence in his explanation.

On the other hand an inquirer who insists on knowing
what suction is, may obtain from the physicist answers
which give him clear ideas, not only about it but about
many other things, He learns that on ourselves and ail

4:26 THE XACTOKS OE ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

tilings around, there is an atmospheric pressure amounting
to about 15 pounds on the square inch : .15 pounds being
the average weight of a column of air having a square inch
for its base and extending upwards from the sea-level to
the limit of the Earth’s atmosphere. He is made to observe
that when he puts One end of a tube into water and the
other end into his mouth, and then draws back his tongue,
so leaving a vacant space, two things happen. One is that
the pressure of air outside his cheeks, no longer balanced
by an equal pressure of air inside, thrusts his cheeks
inwards ; and the other is that the pressure of air on
the surface of the water, no longer balanced by an equal
pressure of air within the tube and his mouth (into which
part of the air from the tube lias gone) the water is forced
up the tube in consequence of the unequal pressure. Once
understanding thus the nature of the so-called suction,
he sees how it happens that when the plunger of the pump
is raised and relieves from atmospheric pressure the water
below it, the atmospheric pressure on the water in the well,
not being balanced by that on the water in the tube, forces
the water higher up the tube, so that it follows the plunger.
And now he sees why the water cannot be raised beyond
the theoretic limit of 82 feet: a limit made much lower
in practice by imperfections in the apparatus. For if,
simplifying the conception, he supposes the tube of the
pump to be a square inch in section, then the atmospheric
pressure of 15 pounds per square inch on the water in the
Well, can raise the water in the tube to such height only
that the entire column of it weighs 15 pounds. Having
been thus enlightened about the pump’s action, the action
pf a barometer becomes intelligible. He perceives how,
under the conditions established, the weight of the column
of moroury balances that of an atmospheric column of
equal diameter,* and how, as the weight of the atmospheric
column varies, there is a corresponding variation in the
weight of the mercurial column, — -shown by change of

THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION'. 42 T

height. Moreover, having previously supposed that he
understood the ascent of a "balloon when he ascribed it to
relative lightness, he now sees that he did not truly under-
stand it. For he did not recognize it as a result of that
upward pressure caused by the difference between the
weight of the mass formed hy the gas in the balloon plus'
the cylindrical column of air extending above it to the limit
of the atmosphere, and the weight of a similar cylindrical
column of air extending down to the under surface of the
balloon : this difference of weight causing an. equivalent
upward pressure on the under surface.

Why do I introduce these familiar truths so entirely irre-
levant to my subject ? I do it to show, in the first place,
the contrast between a vague conception of a cause and a
distinct conception of it; or rather, the contrast between
that conception of a cause which results when it is simply
classed with some other or others which familiarity makes
us think we understand, and that conception of a cause
which results when it is represented in terms of definite
physical forces admitting of measurement. And I do it to
show, in the second place, that when we insist on resolving
a \ ei bally-intelligible cause into its actual factors, we
get not only a clear solution of the problem before us, but
we find that the way is opened to solutions of sundry other
problems. While we rest satisfied with unanalyzed causes,
we may be sure both that we do not rightly comprehend the
production of the particular effects ascribed to them, and
that we overlook other effects which would be revealed
to us by contemplation of the causes as analyzed. Espe-
cially must this be so where the causation is complex.
Hence we may infer that the phenomena presented by
the development of species, are not likely to be truly
conceived unless we keep in view the concrete agencies at
work. Let us look closely at the facts to be dealt with.

The growth of a thing is effected by the joint operation

428

THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

of certain forces, on certain materials ; and when it dwindles,
there is either a lack of some materials, or the forces co-
operate in a way different from that which produces growth.
If a structure has varied, the implication is that the processes
which built it up were made unlike the parallel processes
in other cases, by the gre'ater or less amount of some one or
more of the matters or actions concerned. Where there
is unusual fertility, the play of vital activities is thereby
shown to have deviated from the ordinary play of vital
activities; and conversely, if there is infertility. If the
germs, or ova, or seed, or offspring partially developed,
survive more or survive less, it is either because their
molar or molecular structures are unlike the average ones,
or because they are affected in unlike ways by surrounding
agencies. When life is prolonged, the fact implies that
the combination of actions, visible and invisible, consti-
tuting life, retains its equilibrium longer than usual in
presence of environing forces which tend to destroy its
equilibrium. That is to say, growth, variation, survival,
death, if they are to be reduced to the forms in which
physical science can recognize them, must be expressed
as effects of agencies definitely conceived — mechanical
forces, light, heat, chemical affinity, &c.

This general conclusion brings with it the thought that
the phrases employed in discussing organic evolution,
though convenient and indeed needful, are liable to mislead
us by veiling the actual agencies. That which really goes
on in every organism is the working together of component
parts in ways conducing to the continuance of their com-
bined actions, in presence of things and actions outside ;
some of which tend to subserve, and others to destroy, the
combination. The matters and forces in these two groups,
are the sole causes properly so called. The words “ natu-
ral selection,” do not express a cause in the physical sense.
They express a mode of co-operation among causes — or
rather, to speak strictly, they express an effect of this

THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION. 429

mode of co-operation. The idea they convey seems perfectly
intelligible. Natural selection having been compared with
artificial selection, and the analogy pointed out, there
apparently remains no indefiniteness : the inconvenience
being, however, that the definiteness is of a wrong kind.
The tacitly implied Nature which selects, is not an em-
bodied agency analogous to the man who selects artificially ;
and the selection is not the picking out of an individual
fixed ou, hut the overthrowing of many individuals by
agencies which one successfully resists, and hence con-
tinues to live and multiply. Mr. Darwin was conscious
of these misleading* implications. In the introduction to his
Animals and Plants under Domestication (p. 6) he says : —

“ For brevity sake I sometimes speak of natural selection as an intelligent
power; . , . I have, also, often personified the word Nature ; for I have
found it difficult to avoid this ambiguity; but I mean by nature only the
aggregate action and product of many natural laws, — and by laws only the
ascertained sequence of events.”

But while he thus clearly saw, and distinctly asserted,
that the factors of organic evolution are the concrete
actions, inner and outer, to which every organism is
subject, Mr. Darwin, by habitually using the convenient
figure of speech, was, I think, prevented from recognizing
so fully as lie would otherwise have done, certain funda-
mental consequences of these actions.

Though it does not personalize the cause, and does not
assimilate its mode of working to a human mode of work-
ing, kindred objections may he urged against the expression
to which I was led when seeking to present the phenomena
in literal terms rather than metaphorical terms — the sur-
vival of the fittest;* for in a vague way the first word,
and in a clear way the second word, calls up an anthro-

* Though Mr. Darwin approved of this expression and occasionally
employed it, he did not adopt it for general use; contending, very truly,
that the expression Natural Selection is in some cases more convenient.
See Animals and Plants under Domestication (first edition) Vol. i, p. 6 ; and
Origin of Species (sixth edition) p. 49.

430

THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

poccntric idea. The thought of survival inevitably suggests
the human view of certain sets of phenomena, rather than
that character 'which they have simply as groups of
changes. If, asking what we really know of a plant, wo
exclude all the ideas associated with the words life and
death, we find that the sole facts known to us are that
there go on in the plant certain inter-dependent processes,
in presence of certain aiding and hindering influences out-
side of it; and that in some cases a difference of structure
or a favourable set of circumstances, allows these inter-
dependent processes to go on for longer periods than in
other cases. Again, in the working together of those many
actions, internal and external, which determine the lives
or deaths of organisms, we see nothing to which the words
fitness and unfitness are applicable in the physical sense.
If a key fits a lock, or a glove a hand, the relation of the
things to one another is presentable to the perceptions,
No approach to fitness of this kind is made by ail organism
which continues to live under certain conditions. Neither
the organic structures themselves, nor their individual
movements, nor those combined movements of certain
among them which constitute conduct, are related in any
analogous way to the things and actions in the environ-
ment. Evidently the word fittest, as thus used, is a figure
of speech; suggesting the fact that amid surrounding
actions, an organism characterized by the word has either
a greater ability than others of its kind to maintain the
equilibrium of its vital activities, or else has so much
greater a power of multiplication that though not longer
lived than they, it continues to live in posterity more
persistently. And indeed, as we here see, the word fittest
has to cover cases in which there may be less ability than
usual to survive individually, but iu which the defect is
more than made good by higher degrees of fertility.

I have elaborated this criticism with the intention of
emphasizing the need for studying the changes which have

MCE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION. 431

gone on, and are ever going on, in organic bodies, from an
exclusively physical point of view. On contemplating- the
facts from this point of view, we become aware that,
besides those special effects of the co-operating forces
which eventuate in the longer survival of one individual
than of others, and in the consequent increase through
generations, of some trait which furthered its survival,
many other effects are being wrought on each and all
of the individuals. Bodies of every class and. quality,
inorganic as well as organic, are from instant to instant
subject to the influences in their environments ; are
from instant to instant being changed by these in ways
that are mostly inconspicuous; and are in course of time
changed by them in conspicuous ways. Living things in
common with dead things, are, I say, being thus perpetu-
ally acted upon and modified; and the changes hence
resulting, constitute an all-important part of those under-
gone in the course of organic evolution. I do not mean to
imply that changes of this class pass entirely unrecognized ;
for, as we shall see, Mr. Darwin takes cognizance of certain
secondary and special ones. But the effects which are not
taken into account, are those primary and universal effects
which give certain fundamental characters to all organisms.
Contemplation of an analogy will best prepare the way for
appreciation of them, and of the relation they bear to those
which at present monopolize attention.

An observant rambler along shores, will, here and there,
note places where the sea has deposited things more or less
similar, and separated them from dissimilar things — will
see shingle parted from sand; larger stones sorted from
smaller stones; and will occasionally discover deposits of
shells more or less worn by being rolled about. Sometimes
the pebbles or boulders composing the shingle at one end
of a bay, he will find much larger than those at the
other : intermediate sizes, having small average differences,
occupying the space between the extremes. An example

433

THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EYOIXTIOH,

occurs, if I remember rightly, some mile or two to tlxe
west of Tenby j but the most remarkable and well-known
example is that afforded by the C-hesil bank. Here, along
a shore some sixteen miles long, there is a gradual in-
crease in the sizes of the stones; which, being at one end
but mere pebbles, are at the other end immense boulders.
In this case, then, the breakers and the undertow have
effected a selection— have at each place left behind those
'•tones which were too large to be readily moved, while
taking away others small enough to be moved easily. But
now, if we contemplate exclusively this selective action of
the sea, we overlook certain important effects which the
sea simultaneously works. While the stones have been
differently acted upon in so far that some have been left
here and some carried there; they have been similarly
acted upon in two allied, but distinguishable, ways; By
perpetually rolling them about and knocking them one
against another, the waves have so broken off their most
prominent parts as to produce in all of them more or less
rounded forms; and then, further, the mutual friction
of the stones simultaneously caused, has smoothed their
surfaces. That is to say in general terms, the actions of
environing agencies, so far as they have operated indiscri-
minately, have produced in the stones a certain unity of
character; at the same time that they have, by their
differential effects, separated them : the larger ones having
withstood certain violent actions which the smaller ones
could not withstand.

Similarly with other assemblages of objects which are
alike in their primary traits but unlike in their secondary
traits. When simultaneously exposed to the same set of
actions, some of these actions, rising to a certain intensity,
maybe expected to work on particular members of the
assemblage changes which they cannot work in those which
are markedly unlike; while others of the actions will work
in all of them similar changes, because of the uniform

THE FACTORS OF ORGASTIC EVOLUTION". 4:33

relations between these actions and certain attributes;
common to all members of the assemblage. Hence it is
inferable that on living organisms, which form an assem-
blage of this kind, and are unceasingly exposed in common
to the agencies composing their inorganic environments,
there must be wrought two such sets of effects. There
will result a universal likeness among them consequent on
the likeness of their respective relations to the matters
and forces around; and there will result, iu some cases, the
differences due to the differential effects of these matters
and forces, and in other cases, the changes which, being
life-sustaining or life-destroying, eventuate in certain
natural selections.

I have, above, made a passing reference to the fact that
Mr. Darwin did not fail to take account of some among
these effects directly produced on organisms by surrounding
inorganic agencies. Here are extracts from, the sixth
edition of the Origin of Species showing this.

“ It is very difficult to decide how far changed conditions, such as of
climate, food, &c., have acted in a definite manner. There is reason to
believe that in the course of time the effects have been greater than can be
proved by clear evidence. . . . Mr. Gould believes that birds of the same
species are more brightly coloured under a clear atmosphere, than when
living near the coast or on islands; and Wollaston is convinced that
residence near the sea affects the colours of insects. Moqmn-Tamion
gives a list of plants which, when growing near the sea-shore, have their
leaves in some degree fleshy, though not elsewhere fleshy ” (pp. 106-7).
“ Some observers axe convinced that a damp climate affects the growth of
the hair, and that with the hair the horns are correlated ” (p. 159).

In his subsequent work. Animals and Plants under
Domestication , Mr. Darwin still more clearly recognizes
these causes of change in organization. A chapter is
devoted to the subject. After premising that “ the direct
action of the conditions of life, whether leading to definite
or indefinite results, is a totally distinct consideration
from the effects of natural selection;” he goes on to say
that changed conditions of life “have acted so definitely
and powerfully on the organisation of our domesticated

m

THE FACTORS OP ORGASTIC EVOLUTION.

productions, that they have sufficed to form new sub*
varieties or races, without the aid of selection by man or
of natural selection.” Of his examples here arc two.

“ I have given in detail in the ninth chapter the most remarkable case
known to me, namely, that in Germany several varieties of maize brought
from the hotter parts of America were transformed in the course of only
two or three generations.” (Vol. ii, p. 277.) [And in this ninth chapter
concerning these and other such instances he says “ some of the foregoing
differences would certainly be considered of specific value with plants in a
state of nature.” (Vol. i, p. 321.)] “ Mr. Meehan, in a remarkable paper,
compares twenty-nine kinds of American trees, belonging to various orders,
with their nearest European allies, all grown in close proximity in the
same garden and under as nearly as possible the same conditions.” And
then enumerating six traits in which the American forms all of them differ
in like ways from their allied European forms, Mr. Darwin thinks there is
no choice but to conclude that these “ have been definitely caused by the
long-continued action of the different climate of the two continents on the
trees.” (Vol. ii, pp. 281-2.)

But the fact we have to note is that while Mr. Darwin
thus took account of special effects due to special amounts
and combinations of agencies in the environment, he did
not take account of the far more important effects due to
the general and constant operation of these agencies.^ If
a difference between the quantities of a force which acts
on two organisms, otherwise alike and otherwise similarly
conditioned, produces some difference between them ; then,
by implication, this force produces in both of them effects
* It is true that while not deliberately admitted by Mr. Darwin, these
effects are not denied by him. In his Animals and Plants under Domesti-
cation (vol. ii, 281), he refers to certain chapters in the Principles oj
Biology , in which I have discussed this general inter-action of the medium
and the organism, and ascribed certain most general traits to it. But
though, by his expressions, ■ he implies a sympathetic attention to the
argument, he does not in such way adopt the conclusion as to assign
to this factor any share in the genesis of organic structures— -much less
that large share which I believe it has had. I did not myself at that
time, nor indeed until quite recently, see how extensive and profound have
been the influences on organization which, as we shall presently see, are
traceable to the early results of this fundamental relation between organism
and medium. I may add that it is in an essay on “Transcendental
Physiology,” first published in 1857, that the line of thought here followed
out in its wider bearings, was first entered upon.

THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION. 435

which they show in common. The inequality between two
things cannot have a value unless the things themselves
have values. Similarly if, in two cases, some unlikeness of
proportion among the surrounding inorganic agencies to
which two plants or two animals are exposed, is followed
by some unlikeness in the changes wrought on them ; then
it follows that these several agencies taken separately, work
changes in both of them. Hence we must infer that
organisms have certain structural characters in common,
-which are consequent on the action of the medium in
which they exist: using the word medium in a compre-
hensive sense, as including all physical forces falling upon
them as well as matters bathing them. And we may con-
clude that from the primary characters thus produced there
must result secondary characters.

Before going on to observe those 'general traits of
organisms due to the general action of the inorganic
environment upon them, I feel tempted to enlarge on
the effects produced by each of the several matters and
forces constituting the environment. I should like to do
this not only to give a clear preliminary conception of
the ways in which all organisms are affected by these
universally-prescnt agents, but also to show that, in the
first place, these agents modify inorganic bodies as well
as organic bodies, and that, in the second place, the organic
are far more modifiable by them than the inorganic. But
to avoid undue suspension of the argument, I content
myself with saying that when the respective effects of
gravitation, heat, light, &c., are studied, as well as the
respective effects, physical and chemical, of the matters
forming the media, water and air, it will be found that
while more or less operative on all bodies, each modifies
organic bodies to an extent immensely greater than the
extent to which it modifies inorganic bodies.

Here, not discriminating among the special effects which

436

TEE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

these various forces and matters in the environment
produce on both classes of bodies, let us consider their
combined effects, and ask — What is tho most general trait
of such effects ?

Obviously the most general trait is the greater amount
of change wrought on the outer surface than on the inner
mass. In so far as the matters of which the medium is
composed come into play, the unavoidable implication is
that they act more on the parts directly exposed to them
than on the parts sheltered from them. And in so far as
the forces pervading* the medium come into play, it is
manifest that, excluding gravity, which affects outer and
inner parts indiscriminately, the outer parts have to bear
larger shares of their actions. If it is a question of heat,
then the exterior must lose it or gain it faster than the
interior; and in a medium which is now warmer and how
colder, the two must habitually differ in temperature to
some extent— -at least where the size is considerable. If
it is a question of light, then in all but absolutely trans-
parent masses, the outer parts must undergo more of any
change producible by it than the inner parts — supposing
other things equal; by which I mean, supposing the case
is not complicated by any such convexities of the outer
surface as produce internal concentrations of rays. Hence
then, speaking generally, the necessity is that the primary
and almost universal effect of the converse between the
body and its medium, is to differentiate its outside from its
inside. I say almost universal, because where the body is
both mechanically and chemically stable, like, for instance,
a quartz crystal, the medium may fail to work either inner
or outer change.

Of illustrations among inorganic bodies, a convenient
one is supplied by an old cannon-ball that has been long
lying exposed. A coating of rust, formed of flakes within
flakes, incloses it ; and this thickens year by year, until,
perhaps, it reaches a stage at which its exterior loses as

THE! FACTORS OF OBGAJTCO EVOLUTION. 437

mncli by rain and wind as its interior gains by further
oxidation of the iron. Most mineral masses — pebbles,
boulders, rocks — if they show any effect of the environment
at all, show it only by that disintegration of surface
which follows the freezing of absorbed water : an effect
which, though mechanical rather than chemical, equally
illustrates the general truth. Occasionally a tc rocking-
stone ” is thus produced. There are formed successive
layers relatively friable in texture, each of which, thickest
at the most exposed parts, and being presently lost by
weathering, leaves the contained mass in a shape more
rounded than before; until, resting on its convex under-
surface, it is easily moved. But of all instances perhaps
the most remarkable is one to be seen on the west hank of
the ISTile at Philse, where a ridge of granite 100 feet high,
has had its outer parts reduced in course of time to a
collection of boulder-shaped masses, varying from say a
yard in diameter to six or eight feet, each one of which
shows in progress an exfoliation of successively-formed
shells of decomposed granite : most of the masses having
.portions of such shells partially detached.

If, now, inorganic masses, relatively so stable in com-
position, thus have their outer parts differentiated from
their inner parts, what must we say of organic masses,
characterized by such extreme chemical instability ? —
instability, so great that their essential material is named
protein, to indicate the readiness with which it passes
from one isomeric form to another. Clearly the necessary
inference is that this effect of the medium must be
wrought inevitably and promptly, wherever the relation
of outer and inner has become settled : a qualification for
which the need will be seen hereafter.

Beginning with the earliest and most minute kinds
of living things, we necessarily encounter difficulties in
getting direct evidence; since, of the countless species

488

THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC, EVOLUTION.

now existing, all I are been subject during millions upon
millions of years to the evolutionary process, and have bad
their primary traits complicated and obscured by those
endless secondary traits which the natural selection of
favourable variations has produced. Among protophytes
it needs but to think of the multitudinous varieties of
diatoms and desmids, with their elaborately-constructed
coverings ; or of the definite methods of growth and
multiplication among such simple Algos as the Conjugates ;
to see that most of their distinctive characters are due to
inherited constitutions, which have been slowly moulded by
survival of the fittest to this or that mode of life. To
disentangle such parts of their developmental changes as
are due to the action of the medium, is therefore hardly
possible. We can hope only to get a general conception of
it by contemplating the totality of the facts.

The first cardinal fact is that all protophytes are cellular
— all show us this contrast between outside and inside.
Supposing the multitudinous specialities of the envelope
in different orders and genera of protophytes to be set
against one another, and mutually cancelled, there remains
as a trait common to them — an envelope unlike that which
it envelopes. The second cardinal fact is that this simple
trait is the earliest trait displayed in germs, or spores,
or other parts from which new individuals are to arise;
and that, consequently, this trait must be regarded as
having been primordial. For it is an established truth of
organic evolution that embryos show us, in general ways,
the forms of remote ancestors; and that the first changes
undergone, indicate, more or less clearly, the first changes
which took place in the series of forms through which the
existing form has been reached. Describing, in successive
groups of plants, the early transformations of these primi-
tive units, Sachs* says of the lowest Algee that ‘'■'the con-

* Text-Book of Botany , dt c, by Julius Sachs. Translated by A. W. Bennett
and W. T. T. Dyer.

TIIE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION. 439

pi gated protoplasmic body clothes itself with, a cell-wall”
(p. 10) ; that in “ the spores of Mosses and Vascular Crypto-
gams ” and in “ the pollen of Phanerogams ” . . . “ the
protoplasmic body of the mother-cell breaks up into four
lumps, which quickly round themselves off and contract, and
become enveloped by a cell-membrane only after complete
separation” (p. 13) ; that in the Equisctacem c( the young
spores, when first separated, are still naked, but they soon
become surrounded by a cell-membrane” (p. 14) ; and that
in higher plants, as in the pollen of many Dicotyledons,
“ the contracting , daughter-cells secrete cellulose even
during their separation” (p. 14). Here, then, in whatever
way we interpret it, the fact is that there quickly arises an
outer layer different from the contained matter. But the
most significant evidence is furnished by “ the masses of
protoplasm that escape into water from the injured sacs
of Vaucheria, which often instantly become rounded into
globular bodies,” and of which the “ hyaline protoplasm
envelopes the whole as a skin” (p. 41) which “is denser than
the inner and more watery substance ” (p. 42). As in this
case the protoplasm is but a fragment, and as it is removed
from, the influence of the parent-cell, this differentiating
process can scarcely be regarded as anything more than
the effect of physico-chemical actions : a conclusion which
is supported by the statement of Sachs that “not only
every vacuole in a solid protoplasmic body, but also every
thread of protoplasm which penetrates the sap-cavity, and
finally the inner side of the protoplasm- sac which encloses
the sap-cavity, is also bounded by a skin ” (p. 42) . If
then “ every portion of a protoplasmic body immediately
surrounds itself, when it becomes isolated, with such a
skin,” which is shown in all cases to arise at the surface of
contact with sap or water, this primary differentiation of
outer from inner must be ascribed to the direct action of
the medium. Whether the coating thus initiated is secreted
by the protoplasm, or whether, as seems more likely, it

440

THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

results from transformation of it, matters not to the argu-
ment. Either way the action of the medium causes its
formation; and either way the many varied and complex
differentiations which developed cell-walls display, must be
considered as originating from those variations of this
physically-generated covering which natural selection has
taken advantage of.

The contained protoplasm of a vegetal cell, which has
self - mobility and when liberated sometimes performs
amoeba-like motions for a time, may be regarded as an
imprisoned amoeba ; and when we pass from it to a free
amoeba, which is one of the simplest types of first animals,
or Protozoa, we naturally meet with kindred phenomena.
The general trait which here concerns us, is that while
its plastic or semi-fluid sarcode goes on protruding, in
irregular ways, now this and now that part of its peri-
phery, and again withdrawing into its interior first one
and then another of these temporary processes, perhaps
with some small portion of food attached, there is but
an indistinct differentiation of outer from inner (a fact
shown by the frequent coalescence of the pseudopodia in
Pdiizopods) ; but that when it eventually becomes quiescent,
the surface becomes differentiated from the contents : the
passing into an encysted state, doubtless in large measure
due to inherited proclivity, being furthered, and having
probably been once initiated, by the action of the medium.
The connexion between constancy of relative position among
the parts of the sarcode, and the rise of a contrast between
superficial and central parts, is perhaps best shown in the
minutest and simplest Infusoria, the Monadinse. The genus
Monas is described by Kent as “plastic and unstable in form,
possessing no distinct cuticular investment ; . . . the food-
substances incepted at all parts of the periphery”;* and
the genus Scytomonas he says “ differs from Monas only in

* A Manual of the Infusoria, by W. SaviUe Kent. Yol. i, p. 202.

THE FACTORS OP ORGANIC EVOLUTION. 441

its persistent shape and accompanying greater rigidity <>i
the peripheral or ectoplasmic layer.”* Describing generally
such low forms, some of wliicli are said to bare neitlier
nncleus nor vacuole, lie remarks that in types somewliat
higher "the outer or peripheral border of the protoplasmic
mass, while not assuming the character of a distinct cell-
wall or so-called, cuticle, presents, as compared with the
inner substance of that mass, a slightly more solid type of
composition.” t And it is added that these forms having so
slightly differentiated an exterior, " while usually exhibiting
a more or less characteristic normal outline, can revert at
will to a pseud-amoeboid and repent state.” $ Here, then,
we have several indications of the truth that the permanent
externality of a certain part of the substance, is followed
by transformation of it into a coating unlike the substance
it contains. Indefinite and structureless in the simplest of
these forms, as instance again the Gregarina ,.§ the limiting
membrane becomes, in higher Infusoria, definite and often
complex : showing that the selection of favourable varia-
tions has had largely to do with its formation. In such
types as the JForaminifera, which, almost structureless
internally though they are, secrete calcareous shells, it is
clear that the nature of this outer layer is determined by*
inherited constitution. But recognition of this consists
with the belief that the action of the medium initiated the
outer layer, specialized though it now is; and that even
still, contact with the medium excites secretion of it.

A remarkable analogy remains to be named. When
we study the action of the medium in an inorganic mass,
we are led to see that between the outer changed layer
and the inner unchanged mass, comes a surface where
active change is going on. Here we have to note that, alike
in the plant-cell and in the animal-cell, there is a similar
relation of parts. Immediately inside the envelope comes

* lb. Vol. i, p. 241. f Kent, Vol. i, p. 56. f lb. Vol. i, p. 57.

§ The Elements of Comparative Anatomy, by T. H. Huxley, pp. 7-9.

M2 THE FACTORS OF ORGASTIC EVOLUTION.

the primordial utricle in tlie one case, and in tiie other
case tlie layer of active sarcode. l’u either case the
living protoplasm, placed in the position of a lining to tlie
cuticle of the cell, is shielded from the direct action of the
medium, and yet is not beyond the reach of its influences.

Limited, as thus far drawn, to a certain common trait of
those minute organisms which are mostly below the reach
of unaided vision, the foregoing’ conclusion appears trivial
enough. But it ceases to appear trivial on passing into
a wider field, and observing the implications, direct and
indirect, as they concern plants and animals of sensible sizes.

Popular expositions of science have so far familiarized
many readers with a certain fundamental trait of living
things around, that they have ceased to perceive how
marvellous a trait it is, and, until interpreted by the Theory
of Evolution, how utterly mysterious. In past times, the
conception of an ordinary plant or animal which prevailed,
not throughout the world at large only but among the
most instructed, was that it is a single continuous entity.
One of these livings things was unhesitatingly regarded as
being in all respects a unit. Parts it might have, various
in their sizes, forms, and compositions ; but these were
components of a whole which had been from the beginning
in its original nature a whole. Even to naturalists fifty
years ago, the assertion that a cabbage or a cow, though
in one sense a whole, is in another sense a vast society
of minute individuals, severally living in greater or less
degrees, and some of them maintaining their independent
lives unrestrained, would have seemed an absurdity. But
this truth which, like so many of the truths established by
science, is contrary to that common sense in which most
people have so much confidence, has been gradually
growing clear since the days when Leeuwenhoeck and his
contemporaries began to examine through lenses the
minute structures of common plants and animals, Each

THE .FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION, 443

improvement in the microscope, while it has widened our
knowledge of those minute forms of life described above,
has revealed further evidence of the fact that all the
larger forms of life consist of units; severally allied in
their fundamental traits to these minute forms of life.
Though, as formulated by Schwann and Schleiden, the
eell-doctrino has undergone qualifications of statement;
yet the qualifications have not been such as to militate
against the general proposition that organisms visible to
the naked eye, are severally compounded of invisible
organisms- — using that word in its most comprehensive
sense. And then, when the development of any animal
is traced, it is found that having been primarily a nucleated
cell, and having afterwards become by spontaneous fission
a cluster of nucleated cells, it goes on through successive
stages to form out of such cells, ever multiplying and
modifying in various ways, the several tissues and organs
composing the adult.

On the hypothesis of evolution this universal trait has to
be accepted not as a fact that is strange but unmeaning.
It has to be accepted as evidence that all the visible forms
of life have arisen by union of the invisible forms ; which,
instead of flying apart when they divided, remained
together. Various intermediate stages are known. Among
plants, those of the Volvox type show us the component pro-
tophytes so feebly combined that they severally carry on
their lives with no appreciable subordination to the life of
the group. And among animals, a parallel relation between
the lives of the units and the life of the group is shown
us in Uroglena and Synerypta. From these first stages
upwards, may be traced through successively higher types,
an increasing subordination of the units to the aggregate;
though still a subordination leaving to them conspicuous
amounts of individual activity. Joining which facts with
the phenomena presented by the cell-multiplication and
aggregation of every unfolding germ, naturalists are now

444 THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

accepting the conclusion that by this process of composition
from Protozoa, wore formed all classes of the Metazoa :*- — (as
animals formed by this compounding are now called) ; and
that in a similar way from Frotophyta, were formed all classes
of what I suppose will be called Meta-phyla, though the
word does not yet seem to have become current.

And now what is the general meaning- of these truths,
taken in connexion with tlm conclusion reached in the
last section. It is that this universal trait of the Metazoa
and Metaphyta, must be ascribed to the primitive action
and re-action between the organism and its medium. The
operation of those forces which produced the primary
differentiation of outer from inner in early minute masses
of protoplasm, pre-determined this universal cell-structure
of all embryos, plant and animal, and the consequent cell-
composition of adult forms arising from them. How
unavoidable is this implication, will be seen on carrying
further an illustration already used — that of the shingle-
covered shore, the pebbles on which, while being in some
cases selected, have been in all cases rounded and smoothed.
Suppose a bed of such shingle to be, as we often see
it, solidified, along with interfused material, into a con-
glomerate. What in such case must be considered as the
chief trait of such conglomerate ; or rather — what must we
regard as the chief cause of its distinctive characters ?
Evidently the action of the sea. Without the breakers, no
pebbles ; without the pebbles, no conglomerate. Similarly
then, in the absence of that action of the medium by which
was effected the differentiation of outer from inner in those
microscopic portions of protoplasm constituting the earliest
and simplest animals and plants, there could not have
existed this cardinal trait of composition which all the
higher animals and plants show us

So that, active as has been the part played by natural
selection, alike in modifying and moulding the original
* A Treatise on Comparative Embryology , by 3?. M. Balfour, Yol, ii, chap, xiii.

THE FACTOES OF OEGANJC EVOLUTION.

415

units — largely as survival of the fittest lias been instru-
mental in furthering and controlling the combination of
these units into visible organisms^ and eventually into large
ones; yet we must ascribe to the direct effect of the medium
on the first forms of life, that character of which this
everywhere- operative factor has taken advantage.

Let us turn now to another and more obvious attribute of
higher organisms, for which also there is this same general
cause. Let us observe how, on a higher platform, there
recurs this differentiation of outer from inner— how this
primary trait in the living units with which life commences,
re-appears as a primary trait in those aggregates of such
units which constitute visible organisms.

In its simplest and most unmistakable form, we see this
in the early changes of an unfolding ovum of primitive
type. The original fertilized single cell, having by spon-
taneous fission multiplied into a cluster of such cells, there
begins to show itself a contrast between periphery aiid
centre ; and presently there is formed a sphere consisting
of a superficial layer unlike its contents. The first change,
then, is the rise of a difference between that outer part
which holds direct converse with the surrounding' medium,
and that inclosed part which does not. This primary
differentiation in these compound embryos of higher
animals, parallels the primary differentiation undergone by
the simplest living things.

Leaving, for the present, succeeding changes of the
compound embryo, the significance of which we shall have
to consider by-and-by, let us pass now to the adult forms
of visible plants and animals. In them we find cardinal
traits which, after what we have seen above, will further
impress us with the importance of the effects wrought on
the organism by its medium.

From the thallus of a sea-weed up to the leaf of a highly
developed phsenogam, we find, at all stages, a contrast

446 THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

‘between the inner and outer parts of these flattened masses
of tissue. In the higher Algie “ the outermost layers con-
sist of smaller and firmer cells, while the inner cells are
often very large, and sometimes extremely long; ”* and in
the leaves of trees the epidermal layer, besides differing in
the sizes and shapes of its component cells from the paren-
chyma forming the inner substance of the leaf, is itself
differentiated by having a continuous cuticle, and by having
the outer walls of its cells unlike the inner walls .f
Especially significant is the structure of such intermediate
types as the Liverworts. Beyond the differentiation of the
covering cells from the contained cells, and the contrast
between upper surface and under surface, the frond of Mar-
chcintia polymorpha clearly shows us the direct effect of
incident forces; and shows ns, too, how it is involved with
the effect of inherited proclivities. The frond grows from a
flat disc-shaped gemma, the two sides of which are alike.
Either side may fall uppermost; and then of the develop-
ing shoot, the side exposed to the light "is under all
circumstances the upper side which forms stomata, the
dark side becomes the under side which produces root-hairs
and leafy processes/’! So that while we have undeniable
proof that the contrasted influences of the medium on the two
sides, initiate the differentiation, we have also proof that the
completion of it is determined by the transmitted structure of
the type ; since it is impossible to ascribe the development of
stomata to the direct action of air and light. On turning
from foliar expansions, to stems and roots, facts of like
meaning meet us. Speaking generally of epidermal tissue
. and inner tissue, Sachs remarks that “the contrast of the
two is the plainer the more the part of the plant concerned
is exposed to air and light.” § Elsewhere, in correspondence
with this, it is said that in roots the cells of the epidermis,
though distinguishedby bearing hairs, “are otherwise similar

* Sachs, p. 210. f Bid. pp. 83-4. f Ibid. p. 183.

§ Bid. 80.

THE FACTOES OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION. 4 : 4 : 7 '

to those of the fundamental tissue” which they clothe,* while
the cuticular covering is relatively thin; whereas in stems
the epidermis (often further differentiated) is composed of
layers of cells which are smaller and thicker-walled : a
stronger contrast of structure corresponding to a stronger
contrast of conditions. By way of meeting the suggestion
that these respective differences are wholly due to the
natural selection of favourable variations, it will suffice if
I draw attention to the unlikeness between imbedded roots
and exposed roots. While in darkness, and surrounded by
moist earth, the outermost protective coats, even of large
roots, are comparatively thin ; hut when the accidents of
growth entail permanent exposure to light and air, roots
acquire coverings allied in character to the coverings of
branches. That the action of the medium causes these
and converse changes, cannot be doubted when we find, on
the one hand, that “ roots can become directly transformed
into leaf-bearing shoots,” and, on the other hand, that in
some plants certain “ apparent roots are only underground
shoots,” and that nevertheless “they are similar to true
roots in function and in the formation of tissue, but have
no root-cap, and, when they come to the light above
ground, continue to grow in the manner of ordinary leaf-
shoots.”!* If, then, in highly developed plants inheriting
pronounced structures, this differentiating influence of the
medium is so marked, it must have been all-important at
the outset while types were undetermined.

As with plants so with animals, we find good reason for
inferring that while the specialities of the tegumentary
parts must he ascribed to the natural selection of favourable
variations, their most general traits are due to the direct
action of surrounding agencies. Here we come upon the
border of those changes which are ascribable to use and
disuse. But from this class of changes we may fitly
exclude those in which the parts concerned are wholly or
* Sachs, p. 83. f Ibid. p. 147.

448 the factoes of OECtANIC evolution.

mainly passive. A corn and a blister will conveniently
serve to illustrate tlie way in winch, certain outer actions
initiate in the superficial tissues, effects of very marked
kinds, which are related neither to the needs of the organ-
ism nor to its normal structure. They are neither adaptive
changes nor changes towards completion of the type.
After noting them we may pass to allied, but still more
instructive, changes. Continuous pressure on any portion of
the surface causes absorption, while intermittent pressure
causes growth : the one impeding circulation and the
passage of plasma from the capillaries into the tissues, and
the, other aiding both. There are yet further mechanically-
produced effects. That the general character of the ribbed
skin on the under surfaces of the feet and insides of the
hands is directly due to friction and intermittent pressure,
we have the proofs :• — first, that the tracts most exposed to
rough usage are the most ribbed ; second, that the insides
of hands subject to unusual amounts of rough usage, as
those of sailors, are strongly ribbed all over; and third, that
in hands which are very little used, the parts commonly
ribbed become quite smooth. These several kinds of evi-
dence, however, full of meaning as they are, I give simply
to prepare the way for evidence of a much more conclu-
sive kind.

Where a wide ulcer has eaten away the deep-seated layer
out of which the epidermis grows, or where this layer has
been destroyed by an extensive burn, the process of healing
is very significant. From the subjacent tissues, which in the
normal order have no concern with outward growth, there
is produced a new skin, or rather a pro-skin; for this
substituted outward-growing layer contains no hair-follicles
or other specialities of the original one. Nevertheless, it
is like the original one in so far that it is a continually
renewed protective covering. Doubtless it may be con-
tended that this make-shift skin results from the inherited
proclivity of the type — the tendency to complete afresh

THE FACTORS OP ORGANIC EVOLUTION. 449

the structure of the species when injured. We cannot,
however, ignore the immediate influence of the medium, on
recalling’ the facts above named, or on remembering the
further fact that, an inflamed surface of slcin, when not
sheltered from the air, will throw out a film of coagulable
lymph. But that the direct action of the medium is a chief
factor we are clearly shown by another case. Accident or
disease occasionally causes permanent eversion, or protru-
sion, of mucous membrane. After a period of irritability,
great at first but decreasing as the change advances, this
membrane assumes the general character of ordinary skin.
Nor is this all : its microscopic structure changes. Where
it is a mucous membrane of the kind covered by cylinder* '
epithelium, the cylinders gradually shorten, becoming finally
flat, and there results a squamous epithelium: there is a
near approach in minute composition to epidermis. Here a
tendency towards completion of the type cannot be alleged ;
for there is, contrariwise, divergence from the type. The
effect of the medium is so great that, in a short time, it
overcomes the inherited proclivity and produces a struc-
ture of opposite kind to the normal one.

With but little break we come here upon a significant
analogy, parallel to an analogy already described, As
was pointed out, an inorganic body that is modifiable by
its medium, acquires, after a time, an outer coat which
has already undergone such change as surrounding agencies
can effect; has a contained mass which is as yet unchanged,
because unreached; and has a surface between the two
where change is going on — a region of activity. And we
saw that alike in the vegetal cell and the animal cell there
exist analogous distributions : of course with the difference
that the innermost part is not inert. Now we have to note
that in those aggregates of cells constituting the Metaphyta
and Metazoa , analogous distributions also exist. In plants
they are of course not to be looked for in leaves and other
deciduous portions^ but only in portions of long duration — •

450 THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

stems and 'brandies. Naturally, too,, wo need not expect
them in plants having* modes of growth which early produce
an outer practically dead part., that effectually shields the
inner actively living part of the stem from the influence
of the medium — long-lived acrogens such as tree-ferns and
long-lived endogens such as palms. But in the highest
plants, exogens, which have the actively living part of
their stems within reach of environing agencies, we find
this part,-— the cambium layer, — is one from which there
is a growth inwards forming wood, and a growth outwards
f orming bark : there is an increasingly thick covering (where
it does not scale off) of tissue changed by the medium,
and inside this a film of highest vitality. In so far as
concerns the present argument, it is the same with the
Metazoa, or at least all of them which have developed
organizations. The outer skin grows up from a limiting
plane, or layer, a little distance below the surface — a place
of predominant vital activity. Here perpetually arise new
cells, which, as they develop, are thrust outwards and
form the epidermis: flattening and drying up as they
approach the surface, whence, having for a time served
to shield the parts below, they finally scale off and leave
younger ones to take their places. This still undifferentia-
ted tissue forming the base of the epidermis, and existing
also as a source of renewal in internal organs, is the
essentially living substance ; and facts above given imply
that it was the action of the medium on this essentially
living substance, which, during early stages in the organiza-
tion of the Metazoa , initiated that protective envelope which
presently became an inherited structure — a structure which,
though pow mainly inherited, still continues to be modifi-
able by fits initiator.

Bully to perceive the way in which these evidences
compel ns to recognize the influence of the medium as a
primordial factor, we need but conceive them as interpreted
without it. Suppose, for instance, we say that the structure

THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION, 451

of the epidermis is wholly determined by the natural selec-
tion of favourable variations ; what must be the position
taken in presence of the fact above named, that when
mucous membrane is exposed to the air its cell-structure
changes into the cell-structure of skin ? The position taken
must be this : — -Though mucous membrane in a highly-
evolved individual organism, thus shows the powerful effect
of the medium on its surface ; yet we must not suppose that
the medium had the effect of producing such a cell-struc-
ture on the , surfaces of primitive forms, undifferentiated
though they were ; or, if we suppose that such an effect
was produced on them, we must not suppose that it was
inheritable. Contrariwise, we must suppose that such effect
cf the medium either was not wrought at all, or that it
was evanescent: though repeated through millions upon
millions of generations it left no traces. And we must
conclude that this skin-structure arose only in conse-
quence of spontaneous variations not physically initiated
(though like those physically initiated) which natural selec-
tion laid hold of and increased. Does any one think this a
tenable position ?

And now we approach the last and chief series of
morphological phenomena which must be ascribed to the
direct action of environing matters and forces. These are
presented to us when we study the early stages in the
development of the embryos of the Metazoa in general.

We will set out with the fact already noted in passing,
that after repeated spontaneous fissions have changed the
original fertilized germ-cell into that cluster of cells which
forms a gemmule or a primitive ovum, the first contrast which
arises is between the peripheral parts and the central parts.
Where, as with lower creatures which do not lay up large
Stores of nutriment with the germs of their offspring, the
inner mass is inconsiderable, the outer layer of cells, which
are presently made quite small by repeated subdivisions.

452

THE SACTOES OE ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

forms a membrane extending over tlie whole surface — the
blastoderm. The next stage of development, which ends
in this covering layer becoming double, is reached in two
ways— by invagination and by delamination; but which is the
original way and which the abridged way, is not quite cer-
tain. Of invagination, nmltitndinously exemplified in the
lowest types, Mr. Balfour says:— “On purely a priori grounds:
there is in my opinion more to be said for invagination
than for any other view”;* and, for present purposes, it
will suffice if we limit ourselves to this: ma king its nature
clear to the general reader by a simple illustration.

Take a small india-rubber ball— not of the inflated kind,
nor of the solid kind, but of the kind about an inch or so
in diameter with a small hole through which, under pressure,
the air escapes. Suppose that instead of consisting of india-
rubber its wall consists of small cells made polyhedral in
form by mutual pressure, and united together. This will
represent the blastoderm. Now with the finger, thrust in
one side of the ball until it touches the other: so making a
cup. This action will stand for the process of invagination.
Imagine that by continuance of it, the hemispherical cup
becomes very much deepened and the opening narrowed,
until the cup becomes a sac, of which the introverted wall
is everywhere in contact with the outer wall. This will
represent the two -layered “ gastrula ” — the simplest
ancestral form of the Metazoa: a form which is permanently
represented in some of the lowest types;. for it needs but
tentacles round the mouth of the sac, to produce a common
hydra. Here the fact which it chiefly concerns us to
remark, is that of these two layers the outer, called in
embryological language the epiblast, continues to carry on
direct converse with the forces and matters in the environ-
ment; while the inner, called the hypoblast, comes in contact

" A Treatise on Comparative Embryology, By Francis M. Balfour, ltj.b,,
imi.s. Yol, ii, p. 813 (second edition).

THE FACTO E S OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION.' 453

vrMi such only of these matters as are put into the f cod-
ec v 1 fcy which it lines. We have further to note that in the
embryos of Metazoa at all advanced in organization, there
arises between these two layers a third — the inesoblast.
The origin of this is seen in types where the developmental
process is not obscured by the presence of a large food-
yolk. "While the above-described introversion is taking
place, and before the inner surfaces of the resulting epiblast
and hypoblast have come into contact, cells, or amoeboid
units equivalent to them, are budded off from one or both
of these inner surfaces, or some part of one or other ; and
these form a layer which eventually lies between the other
two — a ..layer which, as this mode of formation implies,
never has any converse with the surrounding medium and
its contents, or with the nutritive bodies taken in from it.
The striking facts to which this description is a necessary
introduction, may now be stated. From the outer layer, or
epiblast, are developed the permanent epidermis and its
out-growths, the nervous system, and the organs of sense.
From the introverted layer, or hypoblast, are developed
the alimentary canal and those parts of its appended
organs, liver, pancreas, &c., which are concerned in deliver-
ing their secretions into the alimentary canal, as well as the
linings of those ramifying tubes in the lungs which convey
air to the places where gaseous exchange is effected. And
from the mesoblast originate the bones, the muscles, the
heart and blood-vessels, and the lymphatics, together with
such parts of various internal organs as are most remotely
concerned with the outer world. Minor qualifications being
admitted, there remain the broad general facts, that out of
; that part of the external layer which remains permanently
external, are developed all the structures which carry on
intercourse with, the medium and its contents, active and
passive,- out of the introverted part of this external layer,
are developed the structures which carry on intercourse
with the quasi-external substances that are taken into the

454 THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

interior — solid food, water, and air; while out of the
mesoblasfc are, developed structures which have never had,
from first to last, any intercourse with the environment.
Let us contemplate these general facts.

Who would have imagined that the nervous system is a
modified portion of the primitive epidermis ? In the absence
of proofs furnished by the concurrent testimony of embryo-
logists during the last thirty or forty years, who would
have believed that the brain arises from an infolded
tract of the outer skin, which, sinking down beneath the
surface, becomes imbedded in other tissues and eventually
surrounded by a bony case ? Yet the human nervous
system in common with the nervous systems of lower
animals is thus originated. In the words of Mr. Balfour,
early embryological changes imply that—

“ the functions of the central nervous system, •which were originally taken
by the whole skin, became gradually concentrated in a special part of the
skin which was step by step removed from the surface, and has finally
become in the higher types a well-defined organ imbedded in the subdermal
tissues. . . . The embryological evidence shows that the ganglion -cells of
the central part of the nervous system are originally derived from the simple
undiJerentiated epithelial cells of the surface of the body.”*

Less startling perhaps, though still startling enough, is the
fact that the eye is evolved out of a portion of the skin;
and that while the crystalline lens and its surroundings
thus originate, the “percipient portions of the organs
of special sense, especially of optic organs, are often
formed from the same part of the primitive epidermis ’ 5
which forms the central nervous system, t Similarly is it
with the organs for smelling and hearing. These, too,
begin as sacs formed by infoldings of the epidermis ; and
while their parts are developing* they are joined from
within by nervous structures which were themselves epi-
dermic in origin. How are we to interpret these strange
transformations ? Observing, as we pass, how absurd from
the point of view of the special-creationist, would appear,

Balfour, Le. Vol. ii, 400-1.

f Balfour, Bo. Vol. ii, p. 401.

THE PACTOSS OP ORGANIC EVOLUTION. 455

such a filiation of structures, and sucli a round-about
mode of embryonic development, we have here to remark
that the process is not one to have been anticipated as
a result of natural selection. After numbers of spontaneous
variations had occurred, as the hypothesis implies, in
useless ways, the variation which primarily initiated a
nervous centre might reasonably have been expected to
occur in some internal part where it would be fitly
located. Its initiation in a dangerous place and subsequent
migration to a safe place, would be incomprehensible. Not
so if we bear in mind the cardinal truth above set forth,
that the structures for holding converse with the medium
and its contents, arise in that completely superficial part
which is directly affected by the medium and its contents;
and if we draw the inference that the external actions
themselves initiate the structures. These once commenced,
and furthered by natural selection where favourable to life,
would form the first term of a series ending in developed
sense organs and a developed nervous system.*

Though it would enforce the argument, I must, for
brevity’s sake, pass over the analogous evolution of that
introverted layer, or hypoblast, out of which the alimentary
canal and attached organs arise. It will suffice to emphasize
the fact that having been originally external, this layer
continues in its developed form to have a quasi-externality,
alike in its digesting part and in its respiratory part; since
it continues to deal with matters alien to the organism.
I must also refrain from dwelling at length on the fact
already adverted to, that the intermediate derived layer,
or mesoblast, which was at the outset completely internal,
originates those structures which ever remain completely
internal, and have no communication with the environment
save through the structures developed from the other two:
an antithesis which has great significance.

* For a general delineation of the changes by which the development
is effected, see Balfour, I.c. Yol. ii, pp. 401-4.

456

THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

Here, instead of dwelling on these details, it will bo
better to draw attention to the most general aspect of tho
facts. ‘Whatever may be the course of subsequent changes,
the first change is the formation of a superficial layer or
blastoderm; and by whatever series of transformations
the adult structure is reached, it is from the blastoderm
that all the organs forming the adult originate. Why this
marvellous fact ?

Meaning is given to it if we go back to the first stage in
which Protozoa, having by repeated fissions formed a clus-
ter, then arranged themselves into a hollow sphere, as do
the protophytes forming a Yolvox. Originally alike all over
its surface, the hollow sphere of ciliated units thus formed,
would, if not quite spherical, assume a constant attitude
when moving through the water ; and hence one part of
the spheroid would more frequently than the rest come in
contact with nutritive matters to be taken in. A division
of labour resulting from such a variation being advanta-
geous, and tending therefore to increase in descendants,
■would end in a differentiation like that shown in the gem-
mules of various low types of Metazoa, which, ovate in shape,
are ciliated over one part of the surface only. There would
arise a form in which the cilium-bearing units effected loco-
motion and aeration; while on the others, assuming an
amceba-like character, devolved the function of absorbing
food : a primordial specialization variously indicated by
evidence.* Just noting that an ancestral origin of this
kind is implied by the fact that in low types of Metazoa
a hollow sphere of cells is the form first assumed by the
unfolding embryo, I draw attention to the point here of chief
interest; namely that the primary differentiation of this
hollow sphere is in such case determined by a difference
in the converse of its parts with the medium, and its
contents; and that the subsequent invagination arises by a
continuance of this differential converse.

* Set Balfour, Yol. i, 149 and Vol. ii, 343-4.

THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION. 457

Even neglecting 1 this first stage and commencing with the
next, in which a “gastrula” has heen produced by the per-
manent introversion of one portion of the surface of the
hollow sphere, it will suffice, if we consider what must there-
after have happened. That which continued to he the outer
surface was the part which from time to time touched
quiescent masses and occasionally received the collisions
consequent on its own motions or the motions of other
things. It was the part to receive the sound-vibrations
occasionally propagated through the water ; the part to he
affected more strongly than any other by those variations
in the amounts of light caused by the passing of small
bodies close to it; and the part which met those diffused
molecules constituting* odours. That is to say, from the
beginning the surface was the part on which there fell the
Various influences pervading the environment, the part by
which there was received those impressions from the en-
vironment serving for the guidance of actions, and the part
which had to bear the mechanical re-actions consequent
upon such actions. Necessarily, therefore, the surface was
the part in which were initiated the various instrumentali-
ties for carrying on intercourse with the environment. To
suppose otherwise is to suppose that such instrumentalities
arose internally i where they could neither be operated on by
surrounding agencies nor operate on them,— where the
differentiating forces did not come into play, and the differ-
entiated structures had nothing to do ; and it is to suppose
that meanwhile the parts directly exposed to the differentia-
ting forces remained unchanged. Clearly, then, organization
could not but begin on the surface; and having thus begun,
its subsequent course could not but be determined by its
superficial origin. And hence these remarkable facts show-
ing us that individual evolution is accomplished by succes-
sive in-foldings and in-growings. Doubtless natural selection
soon came into action, as, for example, in the removal of the
rudimentary nervous centres from the surface; since an

458 THE FACTORS OF QRGAKIC EVOLUTION.

individual in wliicli they 'were a little more deeply seated
would be less likely to be incapacitated by injury of them.
And so in multitudinous other ways. But nevertheless, as
we here see, natural selection could operate only under
subjection. It could do no more than take advantage of
those structural changes which the medium and its con-
tents initiated.

See, then, how large has been the part played by this
primordial factor. Had it done no more than give to
Protozoa and Protophyta' that cell-form which characterizes
them — had it done no more than entail the cellular com-
position which is so remarkable a trait of Metazoa and
Metaphyta — had it done no more than cause the repetition
in all visible animals and plants of that primary differen-
tiation of outer from inner which it first wrought in
animals and plants invisible to the naked eye j it would
have done much towards giving to organisms of all kinds
certain leading traits. But it has done more than this.
By causing* the first differentiations of those clusters of
units out of which visible animals in general arose, it
fixed the starting place for organization, and therefore
determined the course of organization ) and, doing this, gave
indelible traits to embryonic transformations and to adult
structures.

Though mainly carried on after the inductive method, the
argument at the close of the foregoing section has passed
into the deductive. Here let us follow for a space the
deductive method pure and simple. Doubtless in biology
a priori reasoning is dangerous ; but there can be no
danger in considering whether its results coincide with
those reached by reasoning a posteriori.

Biologists in general agree that in the present state of
the world, no such thing happens as the rise of a living
creature out of non-living matter. They do not deny,
Vvever, that at a remote period in the past, when the

THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION, 4:59

temperature of the Earth’s surface was mucli higher than
at present, and other physical conditions were unlike those
we know, inorganic matter, through successive complica-
tions, gave origin to organic matter. So many substances
once supposed to belong exclusively to living bodies, have
now been formed artificially, that men of science scarcely
question the conclusion that there are conditions under
which, by yet another step of composition, quaternary com-
pounds of lower types pass into those of highest types.
That there once took place gradual divergence- of the
organic from the inorganic, is, indeed, a necessary implica-
tion of the hypothesis of Evolution, taken as a whole ; and
if we accept it as a whole, we must put to ourselves the
question— -What were the early stages of progress which
followed, after the most complex form of matter had arisen
out of forms of matter a degree less complex ?

At first, protoplasm could have had no proclivities to one
or other arrangement of parts; unless, indeed, a purely
mechanical proclivity towards a spherical form when
suspended in a liquid. At the outset it must have been
passive. In respect of its passivity, primitive organic
matter must have been like inorganic matter. No such
thing as spontaneous variation could have occurred in
it; for variation implies some habitual course of change
from which it is a divergence, and is therefore excluded
where there is no habitual course of change. In the
absence of that cyclical series of metamorphoses which
even the simplest living thing now shows us, as a result of
its inherited constitution, there could he no point d’appui for
natural selection. How, then, did organic evolution begin ?

If a primitive mass of organic matter was like a mass
of inorganic matter in respect of its passivity, and differed
only in respect of its greater changeableness; then we
must infer that its first changes conformed to the same
general law as do the changes of an inorganic mass.
The instability of the homogeneous is a universal principle*

460

THE FACTORS OP ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

In all cases the homogeneous tends to pass into the hefero-
goneous, and tlie less heterogeneous into the more hetero-
geneous. In the primordial units of protoplasm, then, the
step with which evolution commenced must have been the
passage from a state of complete likeness throughout the
mass to a state in which there existed some unlikeness.
Further, the cause of this step in one of these portions of
organic matter, as in any portion of inorganic matter, must
have been the different exposure of its parts to incident
forces. What incident forces ? Those of its medium or
environment. Which were the parts thus differently
exposed? Necessarily the outside and the inside. In-
evitably, then, alike in the organic aggregate and the
inorganic aggregate (supposing it to have coherence enough
to maintain constant relative positions among its parts), the
first fall from homogeneity to heterogeneity must always
have been the differentiation of the external surface from
the internal contents. No matter whether the modifica-
tion was physical or chemical, one of composition or of
decomposition, it comes within the same generalization.
The direct action of the medium was the primordial factor
of organic evolution.

And now, finally, let us look at the factors in their
ensemble, and consider the respective parts they play :
observing, especially, the ways in which, at successive
stages, they severally give place one to another in degree of
importance.

Acting alone, the primordial factor must have initiated
the primary differentiation in all units of protoplasm alike.
1 say alike, but I must forthwith qualify the word. For
since surrounding influences, physical and chemical, could
not be absolutely the same in all places, especially when
the first rudiments of living things had spread over a
considerable area, there necessarily arose small contrasts
between the degrees and kinds of superficial differentiation

THE FACTORS OR ORGANIC EVOLUTION. 401 .

effected. As soon as these "became decided, natural selec-
tion came into play; for inevitably tlie unlikenesses
produced among the units bad effects on tlieir lives : there
was survival of some among the modified forms ratlier
than others. Utterly in the dark though we are respect-
ing the causes which set up that process of fission
everywhere occurring among, the minutest forms of life,
we must infer that, when established, it furthered the
spread of those which were most favourably differentiated
by the' medium. Though natural selection must have
become increasingly active when once it had got a start ;
yet the differentiating action of the medium never ceased
to be a co-operator in the development of these first
animals and plants. Again taking the lead as there arose
the composite forms of animals and plants, and again
losing the lead with that advancing differentiation of
these higher types which gave more scope to natural
selection, it nevertheless continued, and must ever con-
tinue, to be a cause, both direct and indirect, of
modifications in structure.

Along with that remarkable process which, beginning in
minute forms with what is called conjugation, developed
into sexual generation, there came into play causes of
frequent and marked fortuitous variations . The mixtures
of constitutional proclivities made more or less unlike by
unlikenesses of physical conditions, inevitably led to occa-
sional concurrences of forces producing deviations of
structure. These were of course mostly suppressed, but
sometimes increased, by survival of the fittest. When, along
with the growing multiplication in forms of life, conflict
and competition became continually more active, fortuitous
variations of structure of no account in the converse with
the medium, became of much account in the struggle with
enemies and competitors ; and natural selection of such
variations became the predominant factor. Especially
throughout the plant-world its action appears to have

462 . THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

been iintnenscly tlie most important; and throughout that
large part of the animal world characterized by relative
inactivity, the survival of individuals that had varied in
favourable ways, must all along have been the chief cause
of the divergence of species and the occasional production
of higher ones.

But gradually with that increase of activity which wo
see on ascending to successively higher grades of animals,
and especially with that increased complexity of life
which we also see, there came more and more into play as
a factor, the inheritance of those modifications of structure
caused by modifications of function. Eventually, among
creatures of high organization, this factor became an
important one; and I think there is reason to conclude
that, m the case of the highest of creatures, civilized men,
among whom the kinds of variation which affect survival
are too multitudinous to permit easy selection of any one,
and among whom survival of the fittest is greatly inter-
fered with, it has become the chief factor: such aid as
survival of the fittest gives, being usually limited to the pre-
servation of those in whom the totality of the faculties has
been most favourably moulded by functional changes.

Of course this sketch of the relations among the factors
must be taken as in large measure a speculation. We are
now too far removed from the beginnings of life to obtain
data for anything more than tentative conclusions respecting
its earliest stages ; especially in the absence of any clue to
the mode in which multiplication, first agamogenetic and
then gamogenetie, was initiated. But it has seemed to me
not amiss to present this general conception, by way of
showing how the deductive interpretation harmonizes with
the several inferences reached by induction.

In his article on Evolution in the HJncychpsedia Britan-
nica , Professor Huxley writes as follows : —

“ How far ‘natural selection’ suffices for the production of sped sa

TEE FACTOES OF OEGANIC EVOLUTION. 4G8

remains to be seen. Pew can doubt that, if not the whole cause, it is a very
important factor in that operation ...

On the evidence of paleontology, the evolution of many existing forms of
animal life from their predecessors is no longer an hypothesis, but an
historical fact ; it is only the nature of the physiological factors to which
that, evolution is due which is still open to discussion.”

With, these passages I may fitly join a remark made in the
admirable address Prof. Huxley delivered before unveiling
the statue of Mr. Darwiu in the Museum at South Ken-
sington. Deprecating the supposition that an authoritative
sanction was given by the ceremony to the current ideas
concerning organic evolution, he said that “science commits
suicide when it adopts a creed.”

Along with larger motives, one motive which has joined
in prompting the foregoing articles, has been the desire to
point out that already among biologists," the beliefs con-;
corning the origin of species have assumed too much the
character of a creed; and that while becoming settled they
have been narrowed. So far from further broadening that -
broader view which Mr. Darwin reached as he grew older,
his followers appear to have retrograded towards a more
restricted view than he ever expressed. Thus there seems
occasion for recognizing the warning uttered by Prof.
Huxley, as not uncalled for.

Whatever may be thought of the arguments and conclu-
sions set forth in this article and the preceding one, they
will perhaps serve to show that it is as yet far too soon to
close the inquiry concerning the causes of organic evolution.

Note.

[The following passages formed part of a preface to the small
volume in which the foregoing essay re-appeared* I
append them here as they cannot new be conveniently
prefixed .]

Though the direct bearings of the arguments contained
in this Essay are biological, the argument contained in its

464

THE FACTOES OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

first half has indirect bearings upon Psychology, Ethics,
and Sociology. My belief in the profound importance of
these indirect bearings, was originally a chief prompter to
set forth the argument; and it now prompts me to re-issue
it in permanent form.

Though mental phenomena of many hinds, and especially
of the simpler hinds, are explicable only as resulting from
the natural selection of favourable variations; yet there
are, I believe, still more numerous mental phenomena,
including all those of any considerable complexity, which
cannot be explained otherwise than as results of the
inheritance of functionally-produced modifications. What
theory of psychological evolution is espoused, thus depends
on acceptance or rejection of the doctrine that not only
in the individual, but in the successions of individuals,
use and disuse of parts produce respectively increase and
decrease of them.

Of course there are involved the conceptions we form of
the genesis and nature of our higher emotions ; and, by
implication, the conceptions we form of our moral intuitions.
If functionally-produced modifications are inheritable, then
the mental associations habitually produced in individuals
by experiences of the relations between actions and their
consequences, pleasurable or painful, may, in the succes-
sions of individuals, generate innate tendencies to like or
dislike such actions. But if not, the genesis of such tend-
encies is, as we shall see, not satisfactorily explicable.

That our sociological beliefs must also be profoundly
affected by the conclusions we draw on this point, is
obvious. If a nation is modified en masse by transmission
of the effects produced on the natures of its members
by those modes of daily activity which fits institutions
and circumstances involve; then we must infer that such
institutions and circumstances mould its members far
more rapidly and comprehensively than they can do if
the sole cause of adaptation to them is the more frequent

It:

THE FACTORS : OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION. :

465

survival of individuals who happen to have varied in
favourable ways.

I will add only that, considering' the width and depth
of the effects which acceptance of one or other of these
hypotheses must have on our views of Life, Mind, Morals,
and Politics, the question — Which of them is true? demands,
beyond all other questions whatever, the attention of
scientific men.

After the above articles were published, I received from
Dr. Downes a copy of a paper “ On the Influence of Light
on Protoplasm,” written by himself and Mr. T. P. Bl unt, M.A.,
which was communicated to the Royal Society in 1878. It
was a continuation of a preceding paper which, referring
chiefly to Bacteria , contended that —

“ Light is inimical to, and under favourable conditions may wholly prevent,
the development of these organisms.”

This supplementary paper goes onto show that the injurious
effect of light upon protoplasm results only in presence of
oxygen. Taking first a comparatively simple type of mole-
cule which enters into the composition of organic matter,
the authors say, after detailing experiments : —

“ If: was evident, therefore, that oxygen was tha agent of destruction under
tlxe influence of sunlight.”

And accounts of experiments upon minute organisms are
followed by the sentence —

“It seemed, therefore, that in absence of an atmosphere, light failed
entirely to produce any effect on such organisms as were able to appear,”
They sum up the results of their experiments in the
paragraph—

“ We conclude, therefore, both from analogy and from direct experiment,
that the observed action on these organisms is not dependent on light per se,
but that the presence of free oxygen is necessary ; light and oxygen together
accomplishing what neither can do alone: and the inference seems irresistible
that the effect produced is a gradual oxidation of the constituent protoplasm

m

THE FACTOES OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

of these organisms, and that, in this respect, protoplasm, although living, is
not exempt from laws which appear to govern the relations of light and
oxygen to forms of matter less highly endowed. A force which is indirectly
absolutely essential to life as we know it, and matter in the absence of which
life has not yet been proved to exist, here unite for its destruction.”

What is the obvious implication ? If oxygen in presence
of light destroys one of these minutest portions of proto-
plasm, wliat ’will be its effect on a larger portion of proto-
plasm ? It will work an effect on the surface instead of on
the whole mass. Hot like the minutest mass made inert all
through, the larger mass will be made inert only on its out-
side; and, indeed, the like will happen with the minutest
mass if the light or the oxygen is very small in quantity.
Hence there will result an envelope of changed matter,
inclosing and protecting the unchanged protoplasm- — there
will result a rudimentary cell-wall.

A COUNTER-CRITICISM.

[First published in The Nineteenth Century, for February, 1888.]

While I do not concur in sundry of the statements and
conclusions contained in the article entitled “ A Great Con-
fession/’ contributed by the Duke of Argyll to the la3t
number of this Review, yet I am obliged to him for having
raised afresh the question discussed in it. Though the in-
junction “ Rest and be thankful/’ is one for which in many
spheres much may be said — especially in the political, where
undue restlessness is proving very mischievous ; yet rest
and be thankful is an injunction out of place in science.
"Unhappily, while politicians have not duly regarded it, it
appears to have been taken to heart too much by naturalists ;
in so far, at least, as concerns the question of the origin
of species.

The new biological orthodoxy behaves just as the old
biological orthodoxy did. In the days before Darwin, those
who occupied themselves with the phenomena of life, passed
by with unobservant eyes the multitudinous facts which
point to an evolutionary origin for plants and animals ; and
they turned deaf ears to those who insisted on the signifi-
cance of these facts. Now that they have come to believe
in this evolutionary origin, and have at the same time
accepted the hypothesis that natural selection has been the
sole cause of the evolution, they are similarly unobservant

468

A COUNTER-CRITICISM,

of the multitudinous facts which cannot rationally he
ascribed to that cause ; and turn deaf ears to those who
would draw their attention to them. The attitude is the
same ; it is only the creed which has changed.

But, as above implied, though the protest of the Duke of
Argyll against this attitude is quite justifiable, it seems to
me that many of his statements cannot be sustained. Some
of thes e concern me personally, and others are of impersonal
concern. 1 propose to deal with them in the order in which
they occur.

On page 144. the Duke of Argyll quotes me as omitting “ for
the present any consideration of a factor which may be dis-
tinguished as primordial;” and he represents me as implying
by this te that Darwin’s ultimate conception of some primor-
dial / breathing of the breath of life’ is a conception which
can be omitted only f for the present.’ ” Even had there
been no other obvious interpretation, it would have been a
somewhat rash assumption that this was my meaning when
referring to an omitted factor ; and it is surprising that this
assumption should have been made after reading the second
of the two articles criticised, in which this factor omitted
from the first is dealt with : this omitted third factor being
the direct physico-chemical action of the medium on the
organism. Such a thought as that which the Duke of
Argyll ascribes to me, is so incongruous with the beliefs I
have in many places expressed, that the ascription of it never
occurred to me as possible.

Lower down on the same page are some other sentences
having personal implications, which I must dispose of before
going into the general question. The Duke says u it is more
than doubtful whether any value attaches to the new factor
with which he [I] desires to supplement it [natural selec-
tion]”; and he thinks it iC unaccountable ” that I u should
make so great u fuss about so small a matter as the effect of
use and disuse of particular organs as a separate and a

A COTJNTEK-CJtHTCISM.

469

newly-recognised factor in the development of varieties.” I
do not suppose that the Duke of Argyll intended to cast
upon me the disagreeable imputation, that I claim as new
that which all who are even slightly acquainted with the
facts know to be anything rather than new. But his words
certainly do this. How he should have thus written in spite
of the extensive knowledge of the matter which he evidently
has, and how he should have thus written in presence of the
evidence contained in the articles he criticizes, I cannot
understand. Naturalists, and multitudes besides naturalists,
know that the hypothesis which I am represented as putting
forward as new, is much older than the hypothesis of natural
selection — goes hack at least as far as Dr. Erasmus Darwin.
My purpose was to bring into the foreground again a factor
which has, I think, been of late years improperly ignored ;
to show that Mr. Darwin recognized this factor in an in-
creasing degree as he grew older (by showing which I
should have thought I sufficiently excluded the supposition
that I brought it forward as new) j to give further evi-
dence that this factor is in operation ; to show there are
numerous phenomena which cannot he interpreted without
it ; and to argue that if proved operative in any case, it may
he inferred that it is operative on all structures having active
functions.

Strangely enough, this passage, in. which I am represented
as implying novelty in a doctrine which I have merely
sought to emphasize and extend, is immediately succeeded
by a passage in which the Duke of Argyll himself represents
the doctrine as being familiar and well established : —

“ That organs thus enfeebled [i.e. by persistent disuse] are transmitted by
inheritance to offspring in a like condition of functional and structural decline,
is a correlated physiological doctrine not generally disputed. The converse
case — of increased strength and development arising out of the habitual and
healthy use of special organs, and of the transmission of these to offspring —
is a case illustrated by many examples in the breeding of domestic animals.
I do not know to what else we can attribute the long slender legs and bodies
of greyhounds so manifestly adapted to speed of foot, or the delicate powers

470

A couNTEK-CRmcisar.

ir e f4 o Js'^ri:“ ere ' or » - — -™*»

3n none of the assertions contained in this passage can I
agree. Had the inheritance of "functional and Siructnral
decime been “ not generally disputed,” half my argument
would have been needless; and had the inheritance of
increased, strength and development ” caused bv use been
recognised, as "illustrated by many examples,” the other
halt of my argument would have been needless. But both
are disputed; and, if not positively denied, are held to be
unproved. Greyhounds and pointers do not yield valid
evidence, because their peculiarities are more due to arti-
ficial selection than to any other cause. It may, indeed be
doubted whether greyhounds nse their legs more than other
dogs. Dogs of all kinds are daily in the habit of running
abrnit and chasing one another at the top of their speed-
other dogs more frequently than greyhounds, which are not
much given to play. The occasions on which greyhounds
exercise their legs in chasing hares, occupy but inconsider-
able spaces m their lives, and can play but small parts in
developing their legs. And then, how about their long
heads and sharp noses ? Are these developed by running ?
The structure of the greyhound is explicable as a result
mainly of selection of variations occasionally arising from
unknown causes; but it is inexplicable otherwise. Still
more obviously invalid is the evidence said to be furnished
by pointers and setters. How can these be said to exercise
tii eir organs- of smell more than other dogs? Do not all
dogs occupy themselves in sniffing about here and there all
ay long.- tracing animals of their own kind and of other
kmds ? Instead of admitting that the olfactory sense is
more exercised m pointers and setters than in other dogs
f im % U > contrariwise; be contended that it is exercised
less; seeing that during the greater parts of their lives
they are shut up in kennels where the varieties of odours
on which to practise their noses, is but small. Clearly if

A COUNTER-CRITICISM.

471

breeders of sporting dogs have from early days habitually
bred from those puppies of each litter which had the
keenest noses (and it is undeniable that the puppies of
each litter are made different from one another, as are the
children in each human family, by unknown combinations
of causes), then the existence of such remarkable powers in
pointers and setters may be accounted for j while it is
otherwise unaccountable. These instances, and many
others such, I should have gladly used in support of my
argument, had they been available; but unfortunately
they are not.

On the next page of the Duke of Argyll’s article (page
145), occurs a passage which I must quote at length before
I can deal effectually with its various statements. It runs
as follows

“ But if natural selection is a mere phrase, vague enough and wide enough
to cover any number of the physical causes concerned in ordinary generation,
then the whole of Mr. Spencer’s laborious argument in favour of his ‘other
factor ’ becomes an argument worse than superfluous. It is wholly fallacious
in assuming that this 1 factor ’ and ‘natural selection’ axe at all exclusive of,
or even separate from, each other. The factor thus assumed to be new is
simply one of the subordinate cases of heredity. But heredity is the central
idea of natural selection. Therefore natural selection includes aud covers all
the causes which can possibly operate through inheritance. There is thus
no difficulty whatever in referring it to the same one factor whose solitary
dominion Mr. Spencer has plucked up courage to dispute. He will never
succeed in shaking its dictatorship by such a small rebellion. His little
contention is like some bit of Bumbledom setting up for Home Rule— some
parochial vestry claiming independence of a universal empire. It pretends
to set up for itself in some fragment of an idea. But here is not even a
fragment to boast of or to stand up for. His new factor in organic evolution
has neither independence nor novelty. Mr. Spencer is able to quote himself
as having mentioned it in his Principles of Biology published some twenty
years ago; and by a careful ransacking of Darwin he shows that the idea
was familiar to and admitted by him at least in his last edition of the Origin
of Species. . . , Danvin was a man so much wiser than all his followers,” &c.

Had there not been the Duke of Argyll’s signature to
the article, I could scarcely have believed that this passage
was written by him. Remembering that on reading his
article in the preceding number of this Review, 1 was
21

472

A COUNTER-CRITICISM.

struck "by tlie extent of knowledge, clearness of discrimina-
tion, and power of exposition, displayed in it, I can scarcely
understand how there has come from the same pen a
passage in which none of these traits are exhibited. .■■Even
one wholly unacquainted with the subject may see in the
last two sentences of the above extract, how strangely
its propositions are strung together. While in the first of
them I am represented as bringing forward a “ new factor/*
l am in the second represented as saying that I mentioned
it twenty years ago ! In the same breath I am described as
claiming it as new and asserting it as old ! So, again, the
uninstructed reader, on comparing the first words of the
extract with the last, will be surprised on seeing in a
scientific .article statements so manifestly wanting in pre-
cision. If “natural selection is a mere phrase,” how can
Mr. Darwin, who thought it explained the origin of species,
be regarded as wise ? Surely it must be more than a mere
phrase if it is the key to so many otherwise inexplicable
facts. These examples of incongruous thoughts I give to
prepare the way; and will now go on to examine the chief
propositions which the quoted passage contains.

The Duke of Argyll says that “heredity is the central
idea of natural selection.” Now it would, I think, be con-
cluded that those who possess the central idea of a thing
have some consciousness of the thing. Yet men have pos-
sessed the idea of heredity for any number of generations
and have been quite unconscious of natural selection.
Clearly the statement is misleading. It might just as truly
be said that the occurrence of structural variations in
organisms is the central idea of natural selection. And it
might just as truly be said that the action of external
agencies in killing some individuals and fostering others is
the central idea of natural selection. No such assertions
are correct. The process has three factors — heredity,
variation, and external action— -any one of which being
absent, the process ceases. The conception contains three

A COUNTER-CRITICISM.

473

corresponding ideas, and if any one be struck out, the
conception caunot be framed. No one of them is the
central idea, but they are co-essential ideas.

From the erroneous belief that “ heredity is the central
idea of natural selection” the Duke of Argyll draws the
conclusion, consequently erroneous, that " natural selection
includes and covers all the causes which can possibly
operate through inheritance.” Had he considered the cases
which, in the Principles of Biology, I have cited to illus-
trate the inheritance of functionally-produced modifications,
he would have seen that his inference is far from correct.
I have instanced the decrease of the jaw among civilized
men as a change of structure which cannot have been
produced by the inheritance of spontaneous, or fortuitous,
variations. That changes of structure arising from such
variations may be maintained and increased in successive
generations, it is needful that the individuals in whom they
occur shall derive from them advantages in the struggle for
existence— advantages, too, sufficiently great to aid their
survival and multiplication in considerable degrees. But a
decrease of jaw reducing its weight by even an ounce
(which would be a large variation), cannot, by either
smaller weight carried or smaller nutrition required, have
appreciably advantaged any person in the battle of life.
Even supposing such diminution of jaw to be beneficial
(and in the resulting decay of teeth it entails great evils),
the benefit can hardly have been such as to increase the
relative multiplication of families in which it occurred
generation after generation. Unless it has done this,
however, decreased size of the jaw cannot have been pro-
duced by the natural selection of favourable variations.
How can it then have been produced? Only by decreased
function- — by the habitual use of soft food, joined, probably,
with disuse of the teeth as tools. And now mark that this
cause operates on all members of a society which falls into
civilized habits. Generation after generation this decreased

474

A, COUNTEK-CBITICISM.

function changes its component families simultaneously,
Natural selection does not cover the ease at all — lias
nothing to do with it. And the like happens in multi-
tudino us other cases. Every species spreading into a new
habitat, coming in contact with new food, exposed to a
different temperature, to a drier or moister air, to a more
irregular surface, to a new soil, &e., &c., has its members
one and all subject to various changed actions, which
influence its mnscular, vascular, respiratory, digestive, and
other systems of organs. If there is inheritance of func-
tionally-produced modifications, then all its members will
transmit the structural alterations wrought in them, and
the species will change as a whole without the supplanting
of some stocks by others. Doubtless in respect of certain
changes natural selection will co-operate. If the species,
being a predacious one, is brought, by migration, into the
presence of prey of greater speed than before ; then, while
all its members will have their limbs strengthened by extra
action, those in whom this muscular adaptation is greatest
will have their multiplication furthered; and inheritance
of the functionally-increased structures will be aided, in
successive generations, by survival of the fittest. But it
cannot be so with the multitudinous minor changes entailed
by the modified life. The majority of these must be of
such relative unimportance that one of them cannot give to
the individual in which it becomes most marked, advantages
which predominate over kindred advantages gained by
other individuals from other changes more favourably
wrought in them. In respect to these, the inherited effects
of use and disuse must accumulate independently of natural
selection.

To make clear the relations of these two factors to one
another and to heredity, let us take a case in which the
operations of all three may be severally identified and
distinguished.

Here is one of those persons, occasionally met with, who

A COUNTER-CRITICISM.

:4:7a'

lias an additional finger on each, hand, and who, we will
suppose, is a blacksmith.. He is neither aided nor much
hindered by these additional fingers ; but, by constant use,
he has greatly developed the muscles of his right arm. To
avoid a perturbing factor, we will assume that his wife, too,
exercises her arms in an unusual degree : keeps a mangle,
and has all the custom of the neighbourhood. Such being
the circumstances, let us ask what are the established facts,
and what are the beliefs and disbeliefs of biologists.

The first fact is that this six-fingered blacksmith will be
likely to transmit his peculiarity to some of his children ;
and some of these, again, to theirs. It is proved that, even
in the absence of a like peculiarity in the other parent,
this strange variation of structure (which we must ascribe
to some fortuitous combination of causes) is often inherited
for more than one generation. Now the causes which
produce this persistent six-fingeredness are unquestionably
causes which ■“ operate through inheritance.” The Duke of
Argyll says that “ natural selection includes and covers all
the causes which can possibly operate through inheritance.”
How does it cover the causes which operate here ? Natural
selection never comes into play at all. There is no foster-
ing of this peculiarity, since it does not help in the struggle
for existence; and there is no reason to suppose it is such a
hindrance in the struggle that those who have it disappear
in consequence. It simply gets cancelled in the course of
generations by the adverse influences of other stocks.

While biologists admit, or rather assert, that the peculi-
arity in the blacksmith's arm which was born with him is
transmissible, they deny, or rather do not admit, that the
otter peculiarities of his arm, induced by daily labour-— its
large muscles and strengthened bones — are transmissible.
They say that there is no proof. The Duke of Argyll
thinks that the inheritance of organs enfeebled by disuse
is “ not generally disputed ;” and he thinks there is clear
proof that the converse change- — increase of size conse-

476

A COUNTER-CRITICISM.

quent on use—is also inherited. But biologists dispute
botli of these alleged kinds of inheritance. If proof is
wanted, it will be found in the proceedings at the ‘last
meeting of the British Association, in a paper entitled f Are
Acquired Characters Hereditary ? ” by Professor Bay Lan-
kester, and in the discussion raised by that paper. Had
this form of inheritance been, as the Duke of Argyll says,
u not generally disputed/’ I should not have written the first
of the two articles he criticizes.

But supposing it proved, as it may hereafter be, that
such a functionally-produced change of structure as the
blacksmith’s arm shows us, is transmissible, the persistent
inheritance is again of a kind with which natural selection
has nothing to do. If the greatly strengthened arm
enabled the blacksmith and his descendants, having like
strengthened arms, to carry on the battle of life in a much
more successful way than it was carried on by other men,
survival of the fittest would ensure the maintenance and
increase of this trait in successive generations. But the
skill of the carpenter enables him to earn quite as much as
his stronger neighbour. By the various arts he has been
taught, the plumber gets as large a weekly wage. The
small shopkeeper by his foresight in buying and prudence
in selling, the village-schoolmaster by his knowledge', the
farm-bailiff by bis diligence and care, succeed in the
struggle for existence equally well. The advantage of a
strong arm does not predominate over the advantages which
other men gain by their innate or acquired powers of other
kinds ; and therefore natural selection cannot operate so as
to increase the trait. Before it can be increased, it is
neutralized by the unions of those who have it with those
who have other traits. To whatever extent, therefore,
inheritance of this functionally-produced modification
operates, it operates independently of natural selection.

One other point has to be noted — the relative importance
of this factor. If additional developments of muscles and

A COUNTER-CRITICISM.

477

bones may be transmitted — if, as Mr. Darwin held, tliere
are various other structural modifications caused by use and
disuse wliich. imply inheritance of this kind — if acquired
characters are hereditary, as the Duke of Argyll believes;
then the area over which this factor of organic evolution
operates is enormous. Not every muscle only, but every
nerve and nerve-centre, every blood-vessel, every viscus,
and nearly every boBe, may be increased or decreased by
its influence. Excepting parts which have passive func-
tions, such as dermal appendages and the bones which
form the skull, the implication is that nearly every organ in
the body may be modified in successive generations by the
augmented or diminished activity required of it; and, save
in the few cases where the change caused is one which
conduces to survival in a pre-eminent degree, it will be thus
modified independently of natural selection. Though this
factor can operate but little in the vegetal world, and can
play hut a subordinate part in the lowest animal world ;
yet, seeing that all the active organs of all animals are
subject to its influence, it has an immense sphere. The'"
Duke of Argyll compares the claim made for this factor to
“ some bit of Bumbledom setting up for Home Rule-— some
parochial vestry claiming independence of a universal
empire.” But, far from this, the claim made for it is to an
empire, less indeed than that of natural selection; and over
a small part of which natural selection exercises concurrent
power; but of which the independent part has an area that
is immense.

It seems to me, then, that the Duke of Argyll is mistaken
in four of the propositions contained in the passages I have
quoted. The inheritance of acquired characters is disputed
by biologists, though he thinks it is not. It is not true that
“heredity is the central idea of natural selection.” The
statement that natural selection includes and covers all the
causes which can possibly operate through inheritance, is
quite erroneous. And if the inheritance of acquired

478

A COUNTER-CRITICISM.

characters is a factor at all, the dominion it rules over is not
insignificant "but vast.

Here I must break off, after dealing with a page and a
half of the Duke of Argyll's article. A state of health
which has prevented me from publishing anything since
“The Factors of Organic Evolution/* now nearly two years
ago, prevents me from carrying the matter further. Could
I have pursued the argument it would, I believe, have been
practicable to show that various other positions taken up by
the Duke of Argyll do not admit of effectual defence. But
whether or not this is probable, the reader must be left to
judge for himself. On one further point only will I say a
word ,* and this chiefly because, if I pass it by, a mistaken
impression of a serious kind may be diffused. The Duke of:
Argyll represents me as “giving up 55 the “ famous phrase ■”
“ survival of the fittest,” and wishing “ to abandon it.” He
does this because I have pointed out that its words have
connotations against which we must be on our guard, if we
would avoid certain distortions of thought. With equal
propriety he might say that an astronomer abandons the
statement that the planets move in elliptic orbits, because
he warns his readers that in the heavens there exist no such
things as orbits, but that the planets sweep on through a
pathless void, in directions perpetually changed by gravi-
tation.

I regret that I should have had thus to dissent so entirely
from various of the statements made, and conclusions drawn,
by the Duke of Argyll, because, as I have already implied,
I think he has done good service by raising afresh the
question he has dealt with. Though the advantages which
he hopes may result from the discussion are widely unlike
the advantages which I hope may result from it, yet we
agree in the belief that advantages may be looked for.

END Of VOL. i.

D. APPLETON & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS.

NEW EDITION OF SPENCER’S ESSAYS.

TJ'SSAYS; Scientific , Political^ and Speculative. By
Herbert Spencer. A new edition, uniform with Mr. Spencer's
other works, including Seven New Essays. Three volumes,
ismo, 1,460 pages, with full Subject-Index of twenty-four pages.
Cloth, $6.00,

CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.

The Development Hypothesis.
Progress ; its Law and Cause.
Transcendental Physiology.

The Nebular Hypothesis,

Illogical Geology.

Bain on the Emotions and die Will.

The Social Organism.

The Origin of Animal Worship.
Morals and Moral Sentiments,

The Comparative Psychology of Man.
Mr. Martineau on Evolution.

The Factors of Organic Evolution.*

CONTENTS OF VOLUME II.

The Genesis of Science
The Classification of the Sciences.
Reasons for dissenting from the Phi-
losophy of M. Comte.

On Laws in General, and the Order
of their Discovery.

The Valuation of Evidence.

What is Electricity ?

Mill versus Hamilton — The Test of
Truth.

CONTENTS OF
Manners and Fashion.

Railway Morals and Railway-
Policy.

The Morals of Trade.

Prison-Ethics.

The Ethics of Kant.

Absolute Political Ethics.
Over-Legislation.

Representative Government —

What is it good for ?

* Also published separately.

•}• Also published separately,
t Also published separately.

Replies to Criticisms.

Prof. Green’s Explanations.

The Philosophy of Style, f
Use and Beauty.

The Sources of Architectural Types
Gracefulness.

Personal Beauty.

The Origin and Function of Music.
The Physiology of Laughter.

VOLUME III.

State-Tampering with Money and
Banks

Parliamentary Reform : the Dangers
and the Safeguards.

“ The Collective Wisdom.”

Political Fetichism.

Specialized Administration.

From Freedom to Bondage.

The Americans. %

Index.

izmo. Cloth, 75 cents,
izmo. Cloth, 50 cents.
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New York : D. APPLETON & CO., 1, 3, & 5 Bond Street.

THE SYNTHETIC PHILOSOPHY

HERBERT SPENCER.

FIRST PRINCIPLES.

Part I.— The Unknowable.

1. Religion and Science.

2. Ultimate Religious Ideas.
8. Ultimate Scientific Ideas.

4. The Relativity of all Know!*

edge.

5. The Reconciliation.

Part II. — The Knowable.

. Philosophy defined.

. The Data of Philosophy.

. Space, Time, Matter, Motion,
and Force.

. The Indestructibility of Matter.

. The Continuity of Motion.

. The Persistence of Force.

, The Persistence of Relations
among Forces.

:. The Transformation and Equiv-
alencc of Forces.

i. The Direction of Motion.

>. The Rhythm of Motion.

Recapitulation, Criticism, and
Recommencement.

!. Evolution and Dissolution.

24. Summary

13. Simple and Compound Evolu-

tion.

14. The Law of Evolution.

15. The Law of Evolution (con-

tinued).

16. The Law of Evolution (con-

tinued).

IT. The Law of Evolution (con-
cluded).

18. The Interpretation of Evolution.

19. The Instability of the Homoge-

neous.

20. The Multiplication of Effects.

21. Segregation.

22. Equilibration.

23. Dissolution,
and Conclusion.

THE PRINCIPLES OF BIOLOGY.

CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

Part I. — The Data op Biology.

1. Organic Matter. 4. Proximate Definition of Life.

2. The Action of Forces on Or- 5. The Correspondence between

game Matter. Life and its Circumstances.

8. The Reactions of Organic Mat- 6. The Degree of Life varies as the
ter on Forces, Degree of Correspondence.

7. The Scope of Biology.

SPENCEE'S SYNTHETIC PHILOSOPHTc

Part II.-

1, Growth.

2. Development.

8. Function.

4. Waste and Repair,
fi. Adaptation.

6. Individuality.

-The Inductions of Biology.

7. Genesis.

8. Heredity.

9. Variation.

10. Genesis, Heredity, and Vans?

tion.

11. Classification.

12. Distribution.

Part III. — The Evolution of Life.

1. Preliminary.

2. General Aspects of the Special-

Creation Hypothesis.

S. General Aspects of the Evolu-
tion Hypothesis.

4. The Arguments from Classifica-

tion.

5. The Arguments from Embryol-

ogy-

6. The Arguments from Morphol-

ogy-

7. The Arguments from Distribu.

tion.

8. How is Organic Evolution

caused ?

9. External Factors.

10. Internal Factors,

11. Direct Equilibration.

12. Indirect Equilibration.

13. The Cooperation of the Factors.

14. The Convergence of the Evi-

dences.

CONTENTS OF YOL. IT.

Part IV. — Morphological Development.

1. The Problems of Morphology.

2. The Morphological Composition

of Plants.

3. The Morphological Composition

of Plants (continued).

4. The Morphological Composition

of Animals.

5. The Morphological Composition

of Animals (continued).

6. Morphological Differentiation in

Plants.

7. The General Shapes of Plants.

8. The Shapes of Branches.

9. The Shapes of Leaves.

10. The Shapes of Flowers.

11. The Shapes of Vegetal Cells.

12. Changes of Shape otherwise

caused.

13. Morphological Differentiation in

Animals.

14. The General Shapes of Animals.

15. The Shapes of Vertebrate Skele-

tons.

16. The Shapes of Animal Cells.

17. Summary of Morphological De-

velopment.

Part V. — Physiological Development.

1. The Problems of Physiology. 6. Differentiations between the

2. Differentiations among the Out- Outer and Inner Tissues of

er and Inner Tissues of Plants. Animals.

3. Differentiations among the Out- 7. Differentiations among the Out-

er Tissues of Plants. er Tissues of Animals.

4. Differentiations among the In- 8. Differentiations among the In-

ner Tissues of Plants. ner Tissues of Animals.

6. Physiological Integration in 9. Physiological Integration in Ani-
Plants. mals.

10. Summary of Physiological Development.

I

spencer’s synthetic philosophy.

Part VI.— Laws of Multiplication.

1. The Factors. 8. Antagonism between Expendi-

2. A priori Principle. ture and Genesis.

3. Obverse a pt fori Principle. 9. Coincidence between High Nu-

4. Difficulties of Inductive Verifi- trition and Genesis.

cation. 10, Specialties of these Rela-

6. Antagonism between Growth tions.

and Asexual Genesis. 11. Interpretation and Qualifica-

6. Antagonism between Growth tion.

and Sexual Genesis. 12. Multiplication of the Human

’J. Antagonism between Develop- Race.

ment and Genesis, Asexual 13. Human Evolution in the Fu-
and Sexual. ture.

Appendix.

A Criticism on Professor Owen’s The- On Circulation and the Formation
oryof the Vertebrate Skeleton. of Wood in Plants.

THE PRINCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGY.

2 vols. $4.00.

CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

Part I. — The Data of Psychology.

1. The Nervous System. 4. The Conditions essential to Ner-

2. The Structure of the Nervous vous Action.

System, 6. Nervous Stimulation and Ner-

8. The Functions of the Nervous vous Discharge.

System. 6. yEstho-Physiology.

Part II. — The Inductions of Psychology.

1. The Substance of Mind. 6. The Revivability of Relations

2. The Composition of Mind. between Feelings.

3. The Relativity of Feelings. 7. The Assoeiability of Feelings.

4. The Relativity of Relations be- 8. The Assoeiability of Relations

tween Feelings. between Feelings.

B. The Revivability of Feelings. 9. Pleasures and Pains.

Part III, — General Synthesis.

1. Life and Mind as Correspon- 6. The Correspondence as iucreas-

dence. ing in Specialty.

2. The Correspondence as Direct '7. The Correspondence as increas-

and Homogeneous. ing in Generality.

8, The Correspondence as Direct 8. The Correspondence as increas-
but Heterogeneous. ing in Complexity.

4. The Correspondence as extend- 9. The Coordination of Correspon*

ing in Space. dences.

5. The Correspondence as extend- 10. The Integration of Correspon.

ing in Time. dences.

11. The Correspondences in their Totality.

spencer’s synthetic philosophy.

Part IV. — Special Synthesis.

5. Instinct.

6. Memory.

7. Reason.

8. The Feelings.
9. The Will.

Part V. — Physical Synthesis.

1. The Nature of Intelligence.

2. The Law of Intelligence.

3. The Growth of Intelligence.

4. Reflex Action.

1. A Further Interpretation need-

ed.

2. The Genesis of Nerves.

3. The Genesis of Simple Nervous

Systems.

4. The Genesis of Compound Ner-

vous Systems.

fi. The Genesis of Doubly Com-
pound Nervous Systems,

6. Functions as related to these

Structures.

7. Physical Laws as thus inter-

preted.

8. Evidence from Normal Varia-

tions.

9. Evidence from Abnormal Va-

riations.

10. Results.

Appendix.

On the Action of Anaesthetics and Narcotics.
CONTENTS OF VOL. II
Part VI. — Special Analysis.

1. Limitation of the Subject.

2. Compound Quantitative Reason-

ing.

- 3. Compound Quantitative Reason-
ing (continued).

4. Imperfect and Simple Quantita-

tive Reasoning.

5. Quantitative Reasoning in gen-

eral.

6. Perfect Qualitative Reasoning.

7 Imperfect Qualitative Reason-

ing.

8. Reasoning in general.

9 Classification, Naming, and Rec-
ognition.

10 The Perception of Special Ob-
jects.

11. The Perception of Body as pre-

senting Dynamical, Statico-
Dynamical, and Statical Attri-
butes.

12. The Perception of Body as pre-

senting Statieo-Dynamical and
Statical Attributes.

13. The Perception of Body as

presenting Statical Attri-
butes.

14. The Perception of Space.

15. The Perception of Time.

16. The Perception of Motion.

17. The Perception of Resist-

ance.

18. Perception in general.

19. The Relations of Similarity and

Dissimilarity.

20. The Relations of Cointension

and Non-Cointension.

21. The Relations of Coextension

and Non-Coextension.

22. The Relations of Coexistence

and Non-Coexistence.

23. The Relations of Connature and

Non-Connature.

24. The Relations of Likeness and

Unlikeness.

25. The Relation of Sequence.

26. Consciousness in general.

27. Results.

spencer’s synthetic philosophy.

Part VII. — General Analysis.

1. The Final Question.

2. The Assumption of Metaphysi-

cians.

3. The Words of Metaphysicians.

4. The Reasonings of Metaphysi-

cians. [ism.

5. Negative Justification of Real-

6. The Argument from Priority.

7. The Argument from Simplicity.

8. The Argument from Distinet-

9. A Criterion wanted. [ness.

10. Propositions qualitatively dis-
tinguished.

Part VIII.-

1. Special Psychology.

2. Classification.

3. Development of Conceptions.

4. Language of the Emotions.

9. ./Esthetic

11. The Universal Postulate.

12. The Test of Relative Validity.

13. Its Corollaries.

14. Positive Justification of Real-

ism.

15. The Dynamics of Consciousness,

16. Partial Differentiation of Sub-

ject and Object.

17. Completed Differentiation of

Subject and Object.

18. Developed Conception of the

Object.

19. Transfigured Realism.
Corollaries.

6. Sociality and Sympathy.

6. Egoistic Sentiments.

7. Ego-Altruistic Sentiments.

8. Altruistic Sentiments.
Sentiments.

THE PRINCIPLES OF SOCIOLOGY,

Two Vols. |4-.00.

CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.

Part I. — The Data op Sociology.

1. Super-Organic Evolution.

2. The Factors of Social Phenom-

ena.

3. Original External Factors.

4. Original Interual Factors.

6. The Primitive Man— Physical.
(5. The Primitive Man — Emotional.

7. The Primitive Man— Intellect-

ual.

8. Primitive Ideas.

9. The Ideas of the Animate and

the Inanimate.

TO. The Ideas of Sleep and Dreams.

11. The Ideas of Swoon, Apoplexy,

Catalepsy, Ecstasy, and other
Forms of Insensibility.

12. The Ideas of Death and Resur-

rection,

13. The Ideas of Souls, Ghosts,

Spirits. Demons.

14. The Ideas of Another Life.

15. The Ideas of Another World.

16. The Ideas of Supernatural

Agents.

17. Supernatural Agents as causing

Epilepsy and Convulsive Ac-
tions, Delirium and Insanity.
Disease and Death.

18. Inspiration, Divination, Exor-

cism, and Sorcery.

19. Sacred Places, Temples, and

Altars ; Sacrifice, Fasting, and
Propitiation ; Praise, Prayer.

20. Ancestor- Worship in general.

21. Idol-Worship and Fetich-Wor-

ship.

spencer's synthetic philosophy.

Part I. —The Data op Sociology. — ( Continued.)

22. Animal-Worship, 25. Deities.

23. Plant-Worship. 26. The Primitive Theory of Things.

24. Nature-Worship. 27. The Scope of Sociology.

Part II. — Thk Inductions of Sociology.

1. What is a Society ?

2. A Society is an Organism.

3. Social Growth.

4. Social Structures.

5. Social Functions.

6. Systems of Organs.

7. The Sustaining System.

8. The Distributing System.

9. The Regulating System.

10. Social Types and Constitutions.

11. Social Metamorphoses.

12. Qualifications and Summary.

Part III. — The Domestic Relations.

1. The Maintenance of Species.

2. The Diverse Interests of the

Species, of the Parents, and
of the Offspring.

3. Primitive Relations of the Sexes.

4. Exogamy and Endogamy.

5. Promiscuity.

6. Polyandry.

7. Polygyny.

8. Monogamy.

9. The Family.

10. The Status of Women.

11. The Status of Children.

12. Domestic Retrospect and Pros-

pect.

CONTENTS OF VOLUME II.
Part IV. — Ceremonial Institutions.

1. Ceremony in general.

2, Trophies.

8. Mutilations.

4. Presents.

5. Visits.

6. Obeisances.

Part V. — 1

7. Forms of Address.

8. Titles.

9. Badges and Costumes.

10. Further Class-Distinctions.

11. Fashion.

12. Ceremonial Retrospect and

Prospect,

ial Institutions.

1. Preliminary.

2. Political Organization in gen-

eral.

3. Political Integration.

4. Political Differentiation.

8. Political Forms and Forces.

6. Political Heads — Chiefs, Kings,

etc.

7. Compound Political Heads.

8. Consultative Bodies.

9. Representative Bodies.

10. Ministries.

11. Local Governing Agencies.

12. Military Systems.

13. Judicial and Executive Systems.

14. Laws.

15. Property.

16. Revenue.

17. The Militant Type of Society.
IS. The Industrial Type of Society.
19. Political Retrospect and Pros-
pect.

spehtoer’s synthetic philosophy.

Part VI. — Ecclesiastic Institutions.

. The Religious Idea.

, Medicine-Men and Priests.

. Priestly Duties ol Descendants.

. Eldest Male Descendants as
Quasi-Priests.

. The Ruler as Priest.

. The Rise of a Priesthood.

. Polytheistic and Monotheistic
Priesthoods.

. Ecclesiastical Hierarchies.

. An Ecclesiastical System as a
Social Bond.

10. The Military Functions of

Priests.

11. The Civil Functions of Priests.

12. Church and State.

13. Non-eonfonnity.

14. The Moral Influences of Priest-

hoods.

15. Ecclesiastical Retrospect and

Prospect.

Ifi. Religious Retrospect and Pros-
pect.

Vol. III.

Part VIL— Professional Institutions. In preparation.
Part YIII. — Industrial Institutions. In preparation.

THE PRINCIPLES OF MORALITY.

Vol. i.

Part I, — The Data of Ethics. $1.25.

Conduct in general.

The Evolution of Conduct.
Good and Bad Conduct.
Ways of judging Conduct.
The Physical View.

The Biological View.

The Psychological View.

The Sociological View.
Criticisms and Explanations.

10. The Relativity of Pains and

Pleasures.

11. Egoism versus Altruism.

12. Altruism versus Egoism.

13. Trial and Compromise.

14. Conciliation.

15. Absolute Ethics and Relative

Ethics.

16. The Scope of Ethics.

Part II.— The Inductions of Ethics. In preparation.
Part III. — The Ethics of Individual Life. In preparation.

spencer’s synthetic philosophy.

Part IV.— The Ethics op Social Life: Justice. $1.26.
CONTENTS.

1. Animal Ethics.

2. Sub-Human Justice.

3. Human Justice.

4. The Sentiment of Justice.

5. The Idea of Justice.

6. The Formula of Justice.

1. The Authority of this Formula,

8. Its Corollaries.

9. The Right to Physical Integrity.

10. The Rights to Free Motion and

Locomotion.

11. The Rights to the Uses of Nat-

ural Media

12. The Right of Property.

13. The Right of Incorporeal Prop-

erty.

14. The Rights of Gift and Bequest
16. The Rights of Free Exchange
and Free Contract.

16. The Right of Free Industry.

11. The Rights of Free Belief and
Worship

18. The Rights of Free Speech and

Publication.

19. A Retrospect with an Addition.

20. The Rights of Women.

21. The Rights of Children.

22. Political Rights — so called.

23. The Nature of the State.

24. The Constitution of the State.
26. The Duties of the State.

26 to 29. The Limits of State-
Duties.

Part V.— The Ethics of Social Life: Negative Beneficence.
In preparation.

Part VI. — The Ethics of Social Life: Positive Beneficence.
In preparation.

Vol. II . — In preparation.

New York: D. APPLETON & CO., 1, 3, & 6 Bond Street.

Herbert Spencer’s Descriptive Sociology.

A CYCLOPAEDIA OF SOCIAL FACTS;

Representing the Constitution of Every Type and Grade of Human Soci-
ety, Past and Present, Stationary and Progressive :

Classified and Tabulated for East Comparison and Convenient Study
of the Relations of Social Phenomena.

Eight Numbers, Royal Folio,

No. I.— Price, $4.00.

ENGLISH. Compiled and Abstracted by James Collies.

No. II.— Price, $4.00.

MEXICANS, CENTRAL AMERICANS, CHIBCHAS, and PERUVIANS,

Compiled and Abstracted by IticnAiiD Schepfic, Ph. I>.

No. III.— Price, $4.00.

LOWEST RACES, NEGRITO RACES, and MALAY O-POLYNESIAN
RACES. Compiled and Abstracted by Professor Duncan, M. A.

Types of Lowest Negrito Races. Malayo- Polype- Samoans.

Itaces. Tasmanians. sian Races. New Zealanders,

Fneglans. New Calcdoui- Sandwich Island- Dyidcs.

Audamanese. ans, etc. era. Javans.

Veddahs. NewGuineu Peo- Tahitians. Sumatrans.

Australians, Fijians. [pie. Tongans. Malagasy.

No. IV.-Price, $4.00.

AFRICAN RACES. Compiled and Abstracted by Professor Duncan, M. A.
Bushmen. I Kaffirs. | Coast Negroes. i Ashantis.

Hottentots, East Africans. Inland Negroes. Fulahs.

Damarns. Congo People. Dahomans. Abyesinians.

Beehuaaos. | 1 I

No. V.-Price, $4.00.

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Arabs. | Bhils. f Nagas. I Kalmucks.

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■: Iroquois. ;

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